How does music affect your mood?
by: Kayla Solano
Do you sometimes find yourself listening to what’s considered sad music yet experience a sense of contentment? Or listen to a happy song that perhaps reminds you of something that saddens you? Cause I sure do. Some studies show that pleasurable music may lead to the release of neurotransmitters associated with reward, such as dopamine.
Dopamine helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting. It’s no wonder that when we hear music we like, regardless of the genre or style, if it is appealing to us it can make us feel happy and good. At the same time of course, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been sad or cried to a few of the more melancholy songs, and at times even to the “happy” songs! (Shh, it’s always a happy cry we know)
I have a wide variety of music taste ranging through the decades but personally I love to listen to a lot of old school r&b as well as modern and alternative so I often find myself listening to what most would consider “sad” or “depressing” music while doing things like getting ready to go out or anywhere, at work, during a pregame or small get togethers, or even when I’m en route to a bar!
Something about the soul that just gets me going, which might have something to do with the fact that I love to sing my heart out 24/7. Now that doesn’t mean I won’t spit a few verses from Weezy’s No Ceilings during any of the activities mentioned above either!
My roommate and I listen to similar music, artists and genres, but with as much time spent around each other, I did notice that we listen to completely different music when doing different things around the house (cleaning, showering, cooking, relaxing or having friends over, etc.) so I decided to ask her a couple of questions on how music affects her mood to compare.
This is what she had to say:
Q: How does music influence your mood?
A: Different music influences me at different times of the day.
Q: So you listen to different music at different times of the day?
A: More towards my mood so if I wake up and I wanna be really productive, I like to meditate so I’ll listen to high vibration/positive music because I believe those vibrations and waves do affect you as a human being in a positive way.
Q: What do you mean by high vibration positive music?
A: It’s basically music with no lyrics, kind of like the sounds made with Tibetan bowls. You can feel it. If you sit down and just focus on the music you can feel it in your skin, almost like you’re vibrating.
Q: And even though it’s over a speaker you can still feel the connection?
A: Yeah, after that I feel like I can take on the day. Now if I’m feeling hype I like to listen to hip-hop. I find it motivating so I like it for the gym, if I’m going hard at work, cooking or even just feeling good about myself.
Q: So what/who do you like to listen to when you’re going through something negative?
A: The same artists.
Q: So you find yourself listening to the same music when you’re happy & sad?
A: Well again, I actually listen to music without words, like techno or deep house. I think when I’m in a bad mood, more talking or words spoken makes me feel worse. I wanna have a moment to myself and not be constantly over thinking. I also like meditation music, not the same as the high vibrations music, that’s more to get me going. Although you can use it to meditate too, meditation music (chimes, nature sounds, etc.) specifically help me relax.
So there you have it. If there’s one thing I think we can all agree on is that music makes us feel. Period. That’s the beauty of music. For some it helps put their feelings into words, for others it helps simply experience expressing themselves through sounds and the lucky ones make the music for the world to feel through our ears, mind & body.
How does music affect your mood?