Final

I’m interested in this question because I truly love music. Since I was young I was always around music. For example, cultural music, religious music, or the music me and my sisters played in the house. Nowadays, I find myself listening to music almost all the time. Whenever I’m doing something or going somewhere, 9 times out of 10 I’ll have music playing. Furthermore, I once had an experience where I was listening to a Frank Ocean song and I asked myself “Why this song got me feeling like this? I have never even experienced something like this before.” After this experience I really started to think about this question and different aspects of music in general. What I expect to find is information that has to do with the brain and probably even psychology or simply science on how the brain works when listening to music and how music affects us emotionally and physically. If my research isn’t what I expected at all I will continue to write about it because this is something I’m really interested in and something I’ve been wondering about for a while now. I’m already expecting a specific type of info and so I will challenge the assumptions I’ve already made and see if they are correct or not.

Gupta, Robert. “Between Music and Medicine.” Robert Gupta: Between Music and Medicine | TED Talk, 2012, https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_gupta_between_music_and_medicine?language=en.

In the Ted Talk “Between Music and Medicine” Robert Gupta goes into depth how music can significantly and positively impact people. Gupta uses examples of people who are in a very distressed time and how music helped them in those times. He even uses the example of a patient who was shot and couldn’t speak but was able to when they began to sing with their therapist.  Gupta also mentions how he started an organization called “Street Symphony” that was supposed to help those in dark times, by using music. This organization performed at shelters and clinics for the homeless and mentally ill on Skid Row, performed for veterans with PTSD,  the incarcerated and the criminally insane. Another example of healing with music that Gupta mentioned was after one of these performances where a lady with some type of palsy had finally stopped shaking when she heard classical music for the first time. Gupta emphasizes the power of music and why it is so important to society and to him. 

Robert Gupta is a violinist, he attended Yale University and Marist College. This Ted talk was released in 2014 to spread awareness about the power that music holds and how music can heal. Robert Guptas audience here could be people who share similar interest in music and may even pursue careers in music, however the audience can also be casual music listeners who have a passion for music.In his Ted talk  he uses peoples experiences with music to move the audience with emotion. For example, in his Ted talk he uses this experience, ” a woman walked up to us and she had tears streaming down her face, and she had a palsy, she was shaking, and she had this gorgeous smile, and she said that she had never heard classical music before, she didn’t think she was going to like it, she had never heard a violin before, but that hearing this music was like hearing the sunshine, and that nobody ever came to visit them, and that for the first time in six years, when she heard us play, she stopped shaking without medication.” This example can evoke emotion in the audience because of how much emotion was in the situation and Guptas tone of voice. Guptas tone becomes softer when he was describing this story and this helps in evoking that emotion out of the audience, but these emotional experiences that Gupta tells the audience is what really puts the emotion in the audience and this is how Gupta informs, moves or even inspires his audience. Gupta also uses credibility to build a sense of trust in his audience. When Gupta mentions his mentors, how much he has been around music, where he has studied, and the way he can play the violin in the beginning and end of his talk, this makes it easier for the audience to believe what he is saying and trust him. He also started the “Street Symphony” organization in 2010, where various musicians traveled to homeless shelters, jails, clinics and probably more places where people don’t have easy access to the music and art. He started the “Street Symphony ” organization in 2010 and the Ted Talk was made in 2012, so his experiences in the last couple years with less fortunate people and music would have pushed him to make this Ted Talk and finally be able to share his experiences on a larger stage. This source helps me answer my question significantly because it answers my question with real life experiences and it also gives me extra information on the topic as well. Gupta cites various mentors and people he learned from in the past.

“And after a few moments, her therapist tries a new tack, and they start singing together, and Gabby starts to sing through her tears, and you can hear her clearly able to enunciate the words to a song that describe the way she feels, and she sings, in one descending scale, she sings, “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” And it’s a very powerful and poignant reminder of how the beauty of music has the ability to speak where words fail, in this case literally speak.”

“ a woman walked up to us and she had tears streaming down her face, and she had a palsy, she was shaking, and she had this gorgeous smile, and she said that she had never heard classical music before, she didn’t think she was going to like it, she had never heard a violin before, but that hearing this music was like hearing the sunshine, and that nobody ever came to visit them, and that for the first time in six years, when she heard us play, she stopped shaking without medication.”

“and for those living in the most dehumanizing conditions of mental illness within homelessness and incarceration, the music and the beauty of music offers a chance for them to transcend the world around them, to remember that they still have the capacity to experiencesomething beautiful and that humanity has not forgotten them.”

Salimpoor, Valorie N, et al. “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 16 Oct. 2009, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2759002/.

Have you ever wondered why people love music so much? In “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” by VN Salimpoor a lot of information on pleasure from music is provided. The paper starts with background information on the topic and what is going to be researched, which was the relationship between emotional arousal/pleasure and music, or in other words “why is music pleasurable”, which was the first sentence of the introduction to this paper. Experiments took place to find answers to this question. Participants listened to music while emotional arousal was observed. In other words, participants’ emotions were recorded while they were listening to the music. These were recorded through measurements of sweat, temperature, heart rate, blood volume change and respiration rate. Participants measured their pleasure levels with ratings of “neutral”, “low pleasure” and “high pleasure”. The experiment ended up showing that music does evoke emotional arousal, which usually leads to pleasurable feelings.

The author of “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” is by VN Salimpoor who studied at McGill University, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Music Media and Technology and the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research. This research article was published October 16, 2009 to find a scientific answer to the question “why is music pleasurable?” . Her audience are people who are also studying like her. We know this by the language she uses throughout her paper, but also the graphs and data recordings she uses. For example, in the text it states “More specifically, emotional arousal is physiologically marked by increased activity of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, without voluntary control.” This kind of language suggests that her audience are people who are studying similar topics, because most people wouldn’t know what some of those terms mean without some kind of study beforehand. To persuade her audience Salimpoor uses credibility, experiments, and facts. She already is a credible person for the amount of studying she has done but she also references other credible sources like other professors, and other studies. The data recordings are very detailed and wouldn’t be able to be read by someone who has never seen it before or learned how to. Salimpoor uses experiments to find answers to her question and these experiments are specific and precise. This can build a sense of trust in her readers.   She definitely has a love for neuroscience and how music affects the brain because of her vast studying on the topic . The genre is educational because the reader will learn why music is so pleasurable to humans with the scientific findings that were found after experiments and research. The tone is neutral or informative, this makes the reader trust the paper more because the neutral tone doesn’t suggest any bias especially because it is a research article, no opinion is present. This article helps me answer my question because it provides different kinds of answers to my questions compared to my last source, so now I can answer my question in a different way with the more information that I have from the article. The article actually wasn’t only put together by Salimpoor, but also by other researchers with credible backgrounds, and many references are cited.

“Yet music has been present in every known human culture as far back as history dates. Although there are various theories as to why music may have developed (for a review see [1]), the intense degree of pleasure associated with listening to music remains a mystery.”

“These results have broader implications by demonstrating that strongly felt emotions could be rewarding in themselves in the absence of a physically tangible reward or a specific functional goal.”

Anuta, Joe. “Probing Question: What Makes a Song Catchy?” Penn State University, ​Penn State News, 4 June 2006, https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/probing-question-what-makes-song-catchy/.

“What Makes A Song Catchy” by Joe Anuta is simply about what truly makes a song catchy to people and why. In the text it is stated that it may not 100% be known what makes a song  There are various factors for why a song can be catchy to someone throughout the text. A cultural connection or familiarity between the listener and the music can influence the listener to think the song is catchy. For example, my mother would probably find a song she grew up on more catchy than I would and vice versa. Constant repetition was a factor that was also mentioned that can possibly make a song more catchy. When a song is constantly being played on the radio or in the media even if a listener doesn’t enjoy it the melody can stay in their head. These are just two of the factors that can make a song catchy according to Joe Anuta.

“What Makes A Song Catchy” by Joe Anuta was published June 4 2006. This research article was written for casual music listeners who may have wondered why some songs are catchy, or why a specific song was catchy to them. In the article it says “Referring to a study done at Dartmouth College last year, Duffy explains that “MRIs show that a catchy song makes the auditory part of the brain ‘itch’, and the only way the itch can be scratched is by listening to the song…If mentally repeating a song is the brain ‘scratching’, Paul Barsom wants to pin down exactly what causes that initial ‘itch’.” This simply explains to us that when we listen to catchy songs it does something to our brains but in this article Joe Anuta wants to know how does this catchy song does to our brains to make it initially catchy, hence “that initial itch”. Joe Anuta uses logic, reason and credibility to inform and persuade his audience. Throughout the article multiple professors are mentioned and a college study is referenced, this allows his audience to trust the article more due to the credibility. The reasoning in the article then informs the reader of the question they probably had in mind which is “what makes a song catchy”, the reasoning makes sense and gets straight to the point so that the reader doesn’t get bored while getting answers to their question. Even though the article mentions various credible sources like the professors the diction used isn’t hard to understand so readers can read it comfortably without getting lost, especially casual readers. For example, in the text it states “”We will, we will, rock you is just easy to remember.”” The “its just easy to remember” part of that quote is very informal especially for a research paper so this relaxes the reader and makes the tone feel more conversational. Joe Aunuta’s article helps me answer my initial question, “why is music so appealing to humans?” by addressing the “catchy” aspect of songs which also plays a role in the appealing aspect of music.

“a particularly appealing performance of the song may be enough to make it stick in your head.”

“”I know when I am composing and recording music, certain chord or note progressions will evoke an emotion in me, in almost a primordial way. When this happens, I am compelled to explore that relationship further,” he says.”

Overall, music appeals to the emotions of people. Music can amplify emotions or help us find emotions that we thought we didn’t have. It can evoke emotions from love to anger, or tranquility to chaos. We see how music can heal us, why we enjoy it, and what it does to us.  In my opinion, music is one of the most powerful forms of art and can change lives. Music doesn’t have a set language, for example there is music that is recognized all over the world for its beauty and power. In Robert Guptas TedTalk I was surprised at the fact that music actually healed a woman with a palsy. Even if the affects of the music were permanent or not it doesn’t change the fact that just some specific sounds and melodies took away a medical condition from a lady. I always knew music was powerful but I did not know music had the power to change lives in these kinds of ways. Music can be a helping hand to someone who never got a physical hand to help them up, or a hug to someone who needs it but hasn’t felt the embrace of another person. Furthermore, I knew music reached the emotions in people I just didn’t really know why this drew us into the music so much, but the studies and research found in “The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal” shows that  music being in tune with how we feel  is simply what makes music listening pleasurable and keeps us coming back.

What I have learned is important to me because all of my life I’ve been surrounded by music and a lot of music has influenced my personality and how I think. Knowing this new found information now helps me understand how and why music has influenced me the way it does. Music has helped me in so many different ways, for example motivation, bettering myself, and having a positive but forward way of thinking. One of the most profound ways I can say music impacted me was by showing me how important it is to be myself at a young age. When we are young we tend to do what we see and act a certain way to fit in, but the music I listened to showed me that being yourself and not caring about other opinions besides yours is something that is so valuable and that being yourself is cool. Music is one of my biggest passions, and learning about what I listen to feels like science and art working together to help me understand myself and music more. I think it would be great for younger people, around the ages 13-17 to know about this information. Most young people or people in general enjoy music, however a lot may not realize that the music they listen to does impact them and their behavior. So if younger people knew this information it may lead them to critically think about their music choices with questions like, why do I enjoy this song, or how does this song impact my life? This will benefit them by understanding themselves more and will help them to build themselves as the person they want to be.