Olivia+Noë+RP+Post+5

The research topic that I have been gathering evidence about is how music influences the emotions and feelings of oneself. There are copious amounts of evidence, which supports the claim that music is able to influence the emotions. In their recent work, Mathieu Roy and Isabelle Peretz have offered evidence, which suggests “several musical cues known to play a role in music expressiveness, such as tempo, accentuation and rhythmic articulation, have been shown to be strongly correlated with skin conductance.” In addition, they suggested that musical interpretation has an important impact on listeners, which triggers emotional responses. These said emotions vary from happiness to sadness in response to “music expressiveness, such as tempo, accentuation and rhythmic articulation.” Such recent studies like these shed new light on musical expressiveness, which previous studies had not addressed. Although no one has ever said so directly, many people have often given me the impression that the music that they listen to does affect how they feel. Evidence emphasizes that music has a substantial effect on the nervous system and brain functioning. There are different sections of the brain that music can affect. Music can be very influential because “after hearing a short piece of music, participants were more likely to interpret a neutral expression as happy or sad, to match the tone of the music they heard.” Musical interpretation is everything; it is based on childhood and the overall well being of the listener. This philosophy is what helps composers and songwriters create a piece of music geared toward a specific audience. Schopenhauer, a philosopher, once wrote, “The inexpressible depth of music is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being.” Basically, Schopenhauer is saying that music allows us to explore who we are and what our lives really mean in relation to the world. Although I primarily thought that the research paper would focus on just the impact that music can have on one’s emotions, I am now leaning toward examining how music can be useful from a therapeutic standpoint. Music has a powerful and therapeutic effect on one’s emotions. It is often said that “music is a stimulus capable of triggering an array of basic and complex emotions; but until recently it was not known that music could affect one’s emotions in such a way that it could be used for therapy. Stefan Ryf and his colleagues suggest that listeners use music “in order to regulate current emotional states.” So while one is listening to music not really focusing on the effects it could potentially have, the music is simultaneously regulating their emotions; this is quite useful in therapy as it could improve a patient’s mood. “Emotion regulation may be best described as a ‘. . . process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions.’ ” Additionally there have been experiments that have been specifically used to help people diagnosed with certain diseases. For example, “the rhythm of music turns on movement areas of the brain, and this has helped people with Parkinson's disease become more mobile.” The sources that I have gathered have explained how music is fundamentally responsible for forming one’s emotions based on the beat and message of the piece. One’s personality can be expressed through the music on one’s playlist. Belle Beth Cooper states in her article that “looking at each other’s top 10 favorite songs actually provided fairly reliable predictions as to the listener’s personality traits.” This is just a summary of what I have found so far in my research process