Anyone who's ever curled up under the covers and listened to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony or danced uncontrollably around their room to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" knows that music has a profound effect on how we feel. Though everybody has their personal favorite genre, or that one song that makes them cry, on a broader scale music is used as a universal language that taps into peoples' psyches and unites people through emotion.
Why is this though? Why does a series of noises arranged in a particular pattern cause us to dance, rejoice, cry, and get goosebumps all over our bodies? I decided to look to the experts (or, at least the self-proclaimed internet experts), to see what they said.
powerful hormones that can incite either joy or stress" (suite101.com). For example,listening to loud music such as heavy metal or hard rock will actually stimulate your adrenal glands, resulting in in the release of stress hormones that cause increased blood pressure and heart rate. No wonder AC/DC always makes me drive faster! Conversely, so-called "soothing" music is more likely to slow your heart rate and calm you down. A recent study that played relaxing music for patients with very fast heart rates (tachycardia), found heart rates were significantly reduced and equalled the 50-60 beats per minutes of the musical composition. This sense of tranquility was induced by the neurotransmitters dopamine, beta-endorphins, and enkephalins released when listening to complacent music. Sound familiar? The exact same effect was seen in animals, which I discussed in my earlier blog post about music and pets!
But what about dancing? Suite101.com covered that too. Apparently, music is actually wired to the motor areas of our brain! Music and dance both engage the same portion of our brain, inextricably linking the auditory with the physical. "When music hits our eardrums, part of the signal flows up towards the motor cortex and creates a connection," says Daniel Levitin, head of the Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at Montreal's McGill University (suite101.com).
Another article from Sciencenews.com looks at a study performed at the University of London to determine how unexpected notes or phrases within a specific piece of music affected peoples' brain wave patterns. Twenty people were asked to listen to the same instrumental hymn, while their brain waves were recorded. The study revealed that unexpected changes in the music caused a brain wave pattern that is similar to the patterns synchronized in different brain areas associated with emotion and movement (sciencenews.com). Fascinating!
I couldn't find a website detailing exactly why your brain reacts to music in the way that it does, but that doesn't make me any less stoked. Music has existed as long as people have, and remains one of the most complex and enriching aspects of humanity. I know all this knowledge about scientific intricacies may not enter my head the next time I'm (guiltily) listening to "Party in the USA," but it's nice to know that below the surface, my brain is in motion, creating a incredible network that inextricably links music to the joy in my life :)
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