Why does Music Lift Us Up?

Why is it that music is so different in each cultures and society; yet, it has the potential to create the same dramatic, emotional impact no matter the language or instrument that is performing the certain piece? Music has been so consistent in our lives that we tend to forget that it shapes so much of who we are in a lifetime. For example, music helps us decide how we view the world, music guides our emotions: how we currently feel about the environment or a certain situation. According to Professor Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and composer from the University of Berkeley, our part of the brain that processes music is considered one of the more primitive lobes of our brain, functioning on a stimulation and reward basis. Thus, the vibrations, or the rhythms, created in a particular soundtrack stimulates the frontal lobe, creating a sense of pleasure due to the rhythmic repetition of a song (Mohana, 2016).

It is also interesting to note that music not only provides the individual listener with auditory sensory but also many forms of other sensory such as visual- through memories associated with a certain song. Levitin further suggests that through a process still not completely understood called ‘synthetization,’ the “memory”, temporal lobe, and the “emotions lobe” the hippocampus, process simultaneously when influenced by music (Mohana, 2016). Thus, when an individual hears a familiar song that was played in the past, it triggers an emotion that was associated with the song at that time period. However, scientists are still not sure as to which lobe creates the association between the two sensory function and how music of all things foster this potential.

For the “Up” component of my final project I wanted to explore how music creates euphoria for people. This project would be awesome as an interdisciplinary because it would involve my passion in music, my major as a communication studies student, and also some scientific research on the neurological aspects of music’s impact on the brain. As a final project I could potentially select pieces that affect people in different ways and ask the class how they felt about certain songs, and thus discuss the discrepancies between how every individual felt about a soundtrack in comparison to the rest of the classroom. I think this could be an interactive way of immersing the class in understanding the scientific aspect of the presentation but also keep in touch with the emotional appeal of the music. In terms of the interview portion of the final project, I think I could survey a wide demographic of people and ask why their particular selection of music makes them happy. This will help to realize how each person processes what is ‘happy’ and ‘uplifting’ in a different way.

Ultimately, I want to understand why is it that some songs dramatically lift our spirits while other songs have no effect, and, lastly why do some songs create such a negative mood that our actual feelings in real life are affected as well for the rest of the day.  

Work Cited:

Mohana, Malini. "Music & How It Impacts Your Brain, Emotions." Psych Central, 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://psychcentral.com/lib/music-how-it-impacts-your-brain-emotions/>.