Ashley Dooley
Ms. Montgomery
English 111
18 November 2013
Affective Music
The subject of how music affects individuals can be a very broad topic. Music affects everyone in different ways. Different genres of music can especially affect people differently. When one starts to listen to a certain type of genre of music, it can quite easily become a major asset to their life. It can help them cope with problems, get them excited and pumped up for a game they’re about to play, and even affect how they dress. Music is all in all a major part of our society. Music can make its mark on individuals by helping our physical and mental health, changing one’s mood, and affecting the way they live their life.
The first way music can affect us is by changing our health. Many psychologists and psychiatrists use music therapy as a way to help an individual in their counseling. An article from the magazine Health and Medicine documented a clinical study on a group of 20 individuals who were depressed. The findings were that “…moods rose and depression fell when they listened to familiar music they selected, on their own or with the help of a music therapist…” (Music Therapy). Also, different types of music have different effects of someone’s mental and physical health and well-being. For instance, slower and more depressed music can make one feel sad and down, while more energetic music can make one feel happy and excited. For the case of affecting one’s physical health, slower beats make heart rates stay at a low, steady pace. On the other hand, faster beats make one’s heart rate speed up.
Another way music can affect our health is by waking people up from a coma. There have been many reported cases of individuals waking from comas after they’ve heard their favorite song or just a song in general play. One reported case states that a British seven year old girl named Charlotte awoke from a coma after hearing her mother sing Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’. An article in People magazine states that “Adele's ‘Rolling in the Deep’…came on the radio, Neve began to sing it to Charlotte and Charlotte smiled” (Girl Awakens from Coma After Hearing Adele Song). Also, “within a few days, [she]…was able to get out of bed. After some physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy, she was even ready to go home” (Girl Awakens from Coma After Hearing Adele Song.
Different types of music genres can change a person’s mood. Music is “an activator and stimulator of the activities of the society” . Also, some studies have “demonstrated strong effects of music on the emotional judgment of such stimuli” . For example, country music has been well-known by affecting an individual’s mood by having a more sullen and depressive impact on the listener. With issues such as alcoholism, adultery, and grief, one’s mood can drastically go down within a matter of one song. Another genre of music that has a major effect on mood is metal music. The metal genre is known for expressing anger and feelings of rage within a person. Songs in this genre often contain swearing and threats to an individual or group.
Another way music affects individuals is when they attend concerts. When at concerts, people can be very excited and get more into the music than by just listening to a song by themselves at home or on the radio while in the car. At concerts people can get very wild. At metal and rock concerts, the band