What is music? Defining music is a daunting task that many different people with varying professions and interests have attempted to undertake. Because music is often viewed as subjunctive, each person presented with the question will provide a different answer. Literally, music is a series of sounds perceived by the human ear, though not all sounds perceived by the human ear are considered music. With as many definitions and opinions on music that you find in society today, how has it impacted our lives? Music is such a driving force in the world that we as human beings, who have grown accustomed to its sounds and daily impression, would be lost and confused if one day music just ceased to exist.
Music has definitely played a crucial role in our lives simply because it stimulates our mood whenever we hear it. Sad love songs can make us cry and feel broken-hearted, while heavy metal music can suddenly leave us energetic, aggressive and in for some stage-diving action. These are just some of the most notable instances where music has created a major impact on society as a whole.
Speaking of society, music has always been instrumental in socialisation. People who share interest in music tend to socialise with each other in a number of possible ways. Concerts or gigs serve as perfect places where fans of particular bands gather and share a moment of live entertainment. Musically inclined individuals interact with their fellows by sharing audio files via the Internet. All these go to show how music can influence people and society.
Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions – including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. The development of recording techniques in the latter half of the 20th century has revolutionized the extent to which most people have access to music. All kinds of music are available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch. The down side of this easy availability of music in the Western world is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted.
Music is a very powerful medium and in some societies there have been attempts to control its use. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities. It is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral. Few other stimuli have effects on such a wide range of human functions. The brain’s multiple processing of music can make it difficult to predict the particular effects of any piece of music on any individual.
The power of music to act therapeutically has long been recognized. Therapy can involve listening to or actively making music. Increasingly it may involve both. Music can be effective in conjunction with other interventions in promoting relaxation, alleviating anxiety and pain in medicine and dentistry, and promoting well-being through the production of particular endorphins. Its therapeutic uses have been explored extensively with particular groups of patients, the elderly, those with brain damage, and those with persistent pain. It has also been used to promote appropriate behavior in vulnerable groups and enhance the quality of life of those who cannot be helped medically
Music can play an important part in human development in the early years stimulating foetuses and infants in such a way as to promote their wellbeing. Early interactions between mother and child have an essentially musical quality which assists in the development of communication skills. Listening to music or being involved in making it does not seem to directly affect intelligence, although active involvement in music making may enhance self-esteem and promote the development of a range of social and transferable skills. Listening to quiet, relaxing background music can improve performance on a range of academic tasks, while exciting music may interfere. Memorisation can be particularly affected. Adults are able to mediate the effects of interference through the adoption of coping strategies
The increased availability of music seems to be encouraging people to use music to manipulate their own moods, reduce stress, alleviate boredom while undertaking tedious or repetitive tasks, and create environments appropriate for particular kinds of social occasion. In short, music is being used by individuals to enhance the quality of their lives.
In parallel with this, there is a large industry concerned with the effects of music on workers and consumers. Music can influence our purchasing behavior in subtle ways in a range of environments. It can assist our ability to remember product names and enhance the product through association with liked music. When consumers are actively involved in making a decision about buying a product, music is likely to play a more peripheral role. The evidence outlined above indicates the extent to which music pervades our everyday lives and influences our behavior. This demand for music is likely to continue to increase. To support our appetite for music, the music industries in the developed world constitute a major element of the economies of many countries. They are in danger of losing their skilled work force in the future because of the extent to which music is taken for granted.
Much of the research into the effects of music on intellectual and personal development, concentration, anxiety, pain reduction, and behavior in a range of settings has tended to ignore the possible effects of cognition at the individual level. This is an important omission. Such research as there is suggests that our thinking about music has a powerful impact on our responses to it. If we wish to understand how music affects our lives we have to take account of the experiences of the individual. The evidence suggests that many people have already discovered that music is good for them. Now we need to develop an understanding of exactly why and in what circumstances.
This will require a multi-disciplinary approach to take account of the many factors which may be important. These may include, the society or culture to which the individual belongs, sub-group membership, individual characteristics including gender, age, prior experiences of music, current mood, whether the music is self or other selected and the extent to which music is considered important in the individual’s life. To explore these issues a wide range of methodologies will need to be adopted which are capable of exploring the individual’s subjective experiences of music while also taking account of those responses of which they are unaware.
There is also a need for more systematic investigation of the ways that music can impact on groups of people in social settings. To date, research has tended to focus on commercial and work environments. The way that music may affect behavior in public places has been neglected. Such research, for instance, might explore whether particular types of music might stimulate orderly exits from large public functions, reduce the incidence of disorder in particular settings, increase tolerance when people have to queue for relatively long periods of time or engender feelings of well being and safety in public places.
In general, responses to music are able to be observed. It has been proven that music influences humans both in good and bad ways. These effects are instant and long lasting. Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe. Music can also be used to change a person's mood, and has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously. Music also has the ability to strengthen or weaken emotions from a particular event such as a funeral.
People perceive and respond to music in different ways. The level of musicianship of the performer and the listener as well as the manner in which a piece is performed affects the "experience" of music. An experienced and accomplished musician might hear and feel a piece of music in a totally different way than a non-musician or beginner. This is why two accounts of the same piece of music can contradict themselves.
Rhythm is also an important aspect of music to study when looking at responses to music. There are two responses to rhythm. These responses are hard to separate because they are related, and one of these responses cannot exist without the other. These responses are (1) the actual hearing of the rhythm and (2) the physical response to the rhythm. Rhythm organizes physical movements and is very much related to the human body. For example, the body contains rhythms in the heartbeat, while walking, during breathing, etc. Another example of how rhythm orders movement is an autistic boy who could not tie his shoes. He learned how on the second try when the task of tying his shoes was put to a song. The rhythm helped organize his physical movements in time
Responses to music are easy to be detected in the human body. Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn. Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate.
The key component of music that makes it beneficial is order. The order of the music from the baroque and classical periods causes the brain to respond in special ways. This order includes repetition and changes, certain patterns of rhythm, and pitch and mood contrasts. One key ingredient to the order of music from the baroque and classical periods is math. This is realized by the body and the human mind performs better when listening to this ordered music.
The down side to the easy availability of music is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted. At the same time as music is becoming a more integral part of every day life, the place of music in formal education world wide is consistently being questioned. Music already plays an important role in promoting human well being. As the positive benefits of music are increasingly demonstrated in health, psychology and other fields demand will increase. If this is to be met society will need appropriately educated musicians
One cannot deny the power of music. High school students who study music have higher grade point averages that those who don't. These students also develop faster physically. Student listening skills are also improved through music education. The top three schools in America all place a great emphasis on music and the arts. Hungary, Japan, and the Netherlands, the top three academic countries in the world, all place a great emphasis on music education and participation in music. The top engineers from Silicon Valley are all musicians. Napoleon understood the enormous power of music. He summed it up by saying, "Give me control over he who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the laws"
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