Listening To Music And Mood Analysis

Possibly the most prevalent reason for listening to music is to regulate emotions. A study performed by Adam Lonsdale and Adrian North found that nearly 96 percent of people listen to music for the purpose of managing their current emotional state (Lonsdale & North 120). Mood regulation can be split into two categories, augmenting positive emotions and improving negative feelings. Augmenting positive emotions refers to listening to music in order to increase feelings like joy and happiness. Lonsdale and North describe that music has the power to increase energy levels and to motivate people (Lonsdale & North 120). Through listening to music, people can regulate how stimulated they are, which makes them happier and more active. Additionally, …show more content…
Lonsdale and North describe that music has the power to “alleviate negative feelings” (Lonsdale & North 111). Because music can change a person’s mood, people are drawn to listening to music. Similarly, Dave Miranda, professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, describes that people can find comfort in music, and can use music to help them vent their negative feelings (Miranda 13). Listening to music has the power to completely change a person’s emotions and improve their mental state. High levels of stress and negative feelings are an inevitable aspect of everyday life. Music can help alleviate these problems. Thomson, Reece, and Benedetto explain that music can be used as a “distraction from unwanted thoughts, worries, and stress” (Thomson, Reece & Benedetto 11). People can listen to music to forget about the problems that they face every day. Just as music can be a distraction from negative feelings, it can also be a distraction from other aspects of everyday …show more content…
Joseph Lingham, professor with the Department of Public Health and Services at Karolinska Institute, and Tores Theorell, researcher at the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University, explain that music “amplifies as well as provokes emotions” (Lingham & Theorell 151). This reason for listening to music is different from mood regulation because mood regulation refers to listening for the purpose of enhancing or improving positive or negative emotions. Some people will listen to music for the sole purpose that it makes them feel different. Often times the emotions produced by music are separate from the listener’s current emotional state, and these new, unexpected feelings are another draw to listening to music. Lingham and Theorell continue by saying that music can change the hormone levels in the body. These hormone changes can produce “stimulating effects on heart rate [and] breathing…as well as a stimulative effect on those parts of the brain that are associated with reward” (Lingham & Theorell 151). While listening to music, the body undergoes an exhilarating experience in which the heart and lungs are racing. People listen to music because of these feelings they experience. Similarly, because music affects the reward part of the brain, a person listening to music experiences similar feelings as eating food and using drugs. People desire this feeling, and listening to music