Music and Our Emotions

by Emerald Chuesh, Reporter

Psychology/Culture

It is no secret that music impacts human emotion. Music used in medical practices dates back to the 1800s. The first therapeutic implications were documented in doctor dissertations, and music therapy was in high demand during the eras of World War I and World War II to help veterans who experienced physical and mental trauma. Although not an official medical profession, music therapy is still recognized by the American Music Therapy Association.

Music impacting our emotions is not as simple as “happy music makes me happy” and “sad music makes me sad.” Just as there is a large variety of different music genres and styles, the range of emotions experienced through music is equally as vast.

While exploring how music impacts our emotions, it is crucial to recognize the factor of nostalgia and memory association. Individuals commonly associate music and songs with different memories, experiences, and people. This association of reality with music often disregards emotions the artist originally intended. Because of such purposes, this article disregards emotions related to nostalgia.

Although the majority of happy-sounding music is meant to inspire joy, the different depths and levels of positive emotions experienced branch way beyond “I’m happy.” Pleasurable music can cause the brain to release neurotransmitters associated with reward, such as dopamine. Enjoying music involves the same receptors that the brain associates with other forms of pleasure, such as drugs and food (Psychology Today, 2019). In this way, the happy-feeling listeners gain from such music is more accurately associated with the mood relaxation or relief.

However, you do not need to hear particularly happy or positive music to feel relaxed or at ease. Emotions such as comfort, serenity, and stress relief are associated with various genres of music. For example, the Journal of Consumer Research found that individuals tend to prefer sad music while experiencing interpersonal loss, like breakups. People tend to equate sad music to empathetic friends, describing comforting music as “someone who really gets it and understands what [you’re] going through.”

Two professors from the Department of Music at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland conducted a study on why people listen to “sad” music and the different emotions it evokes. Their thorough list of 24 reasons for listening to sad music include topics ranging from “to channel my emotions,” “to feel closer to my loved ones,” and even “to experience new feelings.” The professors concluded that while the majority of emotions experienced through sad-sounding music are generally sorrowful, they recognized three divisions of sorrow, each with their own group of adjectives: grief-stricken, comfort, and sublime or sweet.

Grief-stricken sorrow encompasses the majority of the most negative emotions: downheartedness, anxiety, powerlessness. Sublime or sweet sorrow exhibits the most positive emotions that borderline happiness while still evoking a somber atmosphere: wonder, pleasant melancholia, satisfaction. Comforting sorrow is the middle ground between these two extremes, although it leans closer toward a sublime or sweet nature rather than grief-stricken sorrow: tenderness, bittersweetness, peacefulness.

After identifying two subgroups of positive emotions versus one subgroup of negative emotions, the studies concluded that positive emotions are more prevalent while listening to sad music. Anonymous Kamiak student and teacher testimonies report, “[sad music] gives me a sense of comfort,” and many agree that listening to certain sad music relieves stress and even makes them happier because “it feels like [the music is] with [them] in the sadness.” One student even mentioned how sad music helps create more deep and meaningful daydreams.

Even if an artist writes a song with certain emotional responses in mind, the listener will not necessarily experience the targeted feelings. “Happy” and “sad” music transcend emotions far beyond their names, and it is common for individuals to feel down while listening to happy music and joyful while listening to sad music. Emotions and reasons for listening to the same song will differ from person to person, and each experience is recognized and valid. The emotions people feel while listening to music genres are as vast as the many genres themselves.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Kamiak High School or The Gauntlet.

Sources

“American Music Therapy Association.” History of Music Therapy | History of Music Therapy | American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), 2021, www.musictherapy.org/about/history/.

Boothby, Suzanne. “How Does Music Affect Your Mood.” Healthline, 13 Apr. 2017, www.healthline.com/health-news/mental-listening-to- music-lifts-or-reinforces-mood-051713.

Eerola, Tuomas, and Henna-Riikka Peltola. “Memorable Experiences with Sad Music-Reasons, Reactions and Mechanisms of Three Types of Experiences.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 2016, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0157444.

Heshmat, Shahram. “Music, Emotion, and Well-Being.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 2019, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/201908/music-emotion-and-well- being#:~:text=Music%20has%20the%20ability%20to,alter%20mood%20or%20relieve%20stress.