Research And Describe How Does Music Evoke Emotion And Mood

Research Paper
How does music evoke emotion
Kyle Liu
York University
Ap-3740-112
Adam Saleh
August 2nd, 2017
Introduction:
With the sound of the alarm, Chris, a young student, who studies music in university, woke up at a early morning, after wiping the sleepy eyes, he unlocked the cellphone, and started to play the songs while taking shows. That was sunny day with bright sunshine, Chris put on his earphones and went to the subway. The station was crowded with people, and someone was playing musical instrument in the path. Chris was attracted by the melody of the guitar, so he stayed there for a while to listen to that morning song. When he arrived at school, he heard that his classmates were chorusing the song which was recently created by him, and he felt satisfied of their voices. Since the world is developing in a extremely fast way, people nowadays have concentrated more on the growth of education, technology and even entertainment. Music is a crucial part that makes a lot of contributions to this development, and it connects to plenty of things in life. As the music now has been widely accepted by people from all ages such as teenagers, adults and even elders, people starts to figure out the reasons why music becomes such important. As a matter of fact, emotion and mood are both affected by music, and that may be one of the most essential aspects why music is so important. As a consequence, people need to find out how does music evoke emotion? Why does music affect the mood? What is the relationship between them? This essay will mainly focus on the connections between these two things in order to understand how music works in people’s emotion.
Literature Review:
According to CITATION Jus08 \l 1033 (Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008), people value music primarily because of the emotions it evokes. Music has immense effect on humans especially in regard to psychology and emotions. It is one of the oldest art forms in human civilization whose significance to human socialization and communication cannot be overlooked. Music is a universal language that brings together all people irrespective of their cultural or economic backgrounds. The packaging of sounds and words of any music elicits some emotions which are manifested through our mannerisms and behavior. According to CITATION Mar09 \l 1033 (Changizi, 2009), researchers found that music has power to influence the emotional ratings of the faces. It has the power to influence the look on an individual’s face and convey a message. Music is a combination of many sounds with varying intonations, pitch and tempo. These elements are meticulously combined to bring a unified pattern of sounds which the artist packages in a manner he/she wants the audience to deduce the meaning from it.
Music is not like any sound or speech. CITATION Mar09 \l 1033 (Changizi, 2009) asserts that speech sounds don’t give us the chills, and they don’t make us cry, since it is not packaged to elicits those emotions. Music therefore is not speech and though they may share words, speech lacks the capacity to invoke those emotions from listeners. The packaging of music and arrangement of words and sound brings difference. People can listen to music from other languages they do not understand and enjoy it while a speech from the same language on the same topic is boring and does not elicit emotions. Not any sound is music and the brain is more responsive emotionally to music than any other sounds however meaningful to it.
Listeners interpret each piece of music differently but its effect is reflected on their moods and externally on their faces. Music is packed with information which is interpreted by the listener differently. According to CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 (Hunter & Schellenberg, 2010), music conveys emotion. CITATION Pat10 \l 1033 (Hunter & Schellenberg, 2010) echo the words of Torke that music is psychotherapeutic and helps the mind and body relax. Music influences the listener’s emotions and it is manifested in their moods and sometimes physically through facial expressions. Sad music would influence the listener to be sad while happy music elates happiness in the listener. It is therapeutic and has the ability to influence the brain to release pleasure hormones that makes the body relax.
Mood and outward responses...