Music is a popular and powerful tool. Many of us use music for many reasons, whether it be to relax, escape from current unpleasant circumstances, or if we are in a bad mood and are looking to shake that feeling- music is the first alternative to picking up our spirits. Maybe there is a big exam that you have to study for but just can’t get your mind to focus, once you put on some classical music-somehow, you find yourself very in-tuned with your books and able to retain the information better than you did a few minutes earlier. If you have ever heard a pregnant woman talk about how they play music to their unborn child, it is because music can actually help stimulate the babies brain activity from the womb. In this essay I will be explaining
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If you are wondering what exactly is Serotonin, “it acts as a Neurotransmitter inside the brain which is a type of chemical that helps relay signals from one part of the brain to the other, it is what also helps with bowel movements” (Bouchez, Collette, WebMD). Some of the cells that are affected by Serotonin are related to mood, memory, and learning. How does this relate to music? Well, whenever you listen to music your brain is processing the music you are listening to which involves both hemispheres of the brain and will also trigger Dopamine. The Dopamine; another Neurotransmitter that controls “the brains reward and pleasure centers” (Psychology today) will be altered by the kind of music you listen to. For example, think about being at a party or a night club, the music is loud and the type of music playing is usually always upbeat which gives you a boost of wanting to have a good time. Or maybe you are at a wedding and you find yourself becoming emotional as you watch the bride walking down the aisle to her groom, but you are not sad, your feeling happy. Those emotions are happening because of how your brain begins to release specific Neurotransmitters based on the song. You are probably saying to yourself that you would be feeling happy even without the music, it’s a wedding! But what if that one specific song that they chose to play during such an important moment with just the right sounds and just the rights words was not playing? Would you still be as emotional and excited without it? Whenever I want to feel spiritual, I put on some gospel music and within minutes I am in a completely different space, or when I am feeling emotional, I find myself listening to songs that relate to how I am feeling which sometimes makes me feel
If you are wondering what exactly is Serotonin, “it acts as a Neurotransmitter inside the brain which is a type of chemical that helps relay signals from one part of the brain to the other, it is what also helps with bowel movements” (Bouchez, Collette, WebMD). Some of the cells that are affected by Serotonin are related to mood, memory, and learning. How does this relate to music? Well, whenever you listen to music your brain is processing the music you are listening to which involves both hemispheres of the brain and will also trigger Dopamine. The Dopamine; another Neurotransmitter that controls “the brains reward and pleasure centers” (Psychology today) will be altered by the kind of music you listen to. For example, think about being at a party or a night club, the music is loud and the type of music playing is usually always upbeat which gives you a boost of wanting to have a good time. Or maybe you are at a wedding and you find yourself becoming emotional as you watch the bride walking down the aisle to her groom, but you are not sad, your feeling happy. Those emotions are happening because of how your brain begins to release specific Neurotransmitters based on the song. You are probably saying to yourself that you would be feeling happy even without the music, it’s a wedding! But what if that one specific song that they chose to play during such an important moment with just the right sounds and just the rights words was not playing? Would you still be as emotional and excited without it? Whenever I want to feel spiritual, I put on some gospel music and within minutes I am in a completely different space, or when I am feeling emotional, I find myself listening to songs that relate to how I am feeling which sometimes makes me feel