Have you ever experienced this – when you hear a certain piece of music, you are reminded of a past event, and a certain feeling emerges in your heart, as if the music has stirred up emotions. Experts say that music indeed has the ability to evoke emotions in people. So, how does music influence people?
Dr. Shahram Heshmat, an honorary associate professor at the University of Illinois Springfield and a writer, wrote on Psychology Today that the extraordinary thing about music is its ability to evoke profound emotions in listeners.
Dr. Heshmat expressed that being moved by music itself is a pleasurable experience. Most listeners consider emotional expression as the most important factor in evaluating music and deciding to purchase songs or albums. So, how does music captivate people?
We may feel a sense of sadness when we hear certain types of music because we have learned to associate them with sad events like funerals. The feeling doesn’t come from the music itself but rather what it reminds us of.
When a particular song is associated with a specific moment in a listener’s life, it often evokes emotions of joy or sadness.
Therefore, if you first heard a certain song during a particularly happy period in your life, it may remind you of happy things in subsequent listening.
Music is the biggest trigger for nostalgia. Listening to songs that were frequently played during significant life events years ago (such as music from your teenage years) can evoke deep nostalgic emotions. This feeling comes from what the music reminds us of.
Melodies can imitate or signify emotions like sadness, joy, fear, and hope. For example, fast, upbeat rhythms or loud sounds can make the music cheerful. Conversely, slow rhythms or dark tones can make the music sad. Just like music, happy people tend to have energetic voices, while sad individuals often speak in soft tones.
The pleasure we derive from reading fictional stories largely stems from our curiosity about what will happen next. Listening to music is similar in this regard. However, listening to a song you’ve heard many times before doesn’t offer surprises because people already know the story.
Music is simply a series of arranged notes. Each individual note may not be special on its own. However, the arrangements of these notes creating variations in intensity (loudness, crescendos, decrescendos, accents) can evoke pleasurable responses in people, creating a “pleasure” akin to a powerful addictive drug.
When people attend music concerts or create music together, through synchronized rhythms and emotional contagion, some of their emotions can be influenced by others present at the live performance.
When our body movements synchronize with the beats of the music, a synchronization effect occurs. Being in sync with others and with the rhythm of the music is quite fascinating.
Maintaining synchrony with another person can lead to positive attitudes towards them. This synchrony process may help explain group relationships, such as how teenagers subcultures listen to specific forms of music.
In conclusion, Dr. Heshmat states that music has the potential to evoke profound emotions in people. This potential is one of the main motivations for people to listen to music. Listening to music one enjoys may be a more effective way to reduce stress and enhance positive emotions compared to relaxing without music.