Musis_Is_a_Universal_Feature_of_Human_Life

Ryan May 40010329 Music is a universal feature of human life and behavior, Discuss. Everybody on the planet has listened to music, the majority of people on the planet would listen to music everyday, either consciously, through MP3 players, CDʼs or on the radio. Many might listen to music subconsciously while in the car or just passing by a shop with music playing inside. Either way we are surrounded by the ʻnoiseʼ which has been based on three distinct and interrelated organizational structures of rhythm, harmony and melody. Music is perhaps the most common form of entertainment for humans, while learning and understanding music have been popular disciplines for people for thousands of centuries. Music is an amazing thing, it can evoke certain emotions in people. These emotional changes can be so powerful they can alter the persons physical state. We detect a piece of music as sad because its dynamic character resembles a persons expression of sadness. People can start crying, get goosebumps on their body and music can send a shiver up the listeners spine. A piece of music may be undeniably emotionally powerful to someone, but at the same time may have the exact opposite effect on another person that has heard it. However what psychologists call the ʻDarling there playing our songʼ theory is common in everyone. This theory is that music has special significance to people depending on the context in which they first heard the piece of music. If it was the persons wedding song or the song they first danced to with their partner the song is remembered fondly. By remembering the song fondly, it can bring back emotions that were first experienced when listening to that particular piece of music. This can be happy emotions from a song played at a happy time such as a wedding, or it can bring about negative, sad emotions from the memory associated with that piece of music, maybe the song was played at a funeral or at a particularly sad time in the persons life. “There is something about music that evolves over time, as do emotions. When we hear the song we relive the emotional sequence that happened when we first heard it”, says Professor John Siobode of Keele University. There are many other reasons why people experience particular emotions during a piece of music. These emotions are brought on by many things within the piece of music. The resemblance that counts most for music expressiveness ... is between musics temporally unfolding dynamic structure and configurations of human behavior associated with the expressions of emotion (Davies 2006). Research by Helmholtz, Edmund Curney and Halbert H. Britain stated that emotions are triggered in listeners due to particular elements within the piece of music. In particular what mode the piece of music is played in. If the piece of music is in the major mode then the music is said to induce feelings of happiness, relaxation and calmness. This is partly due to the consonant notes used in the major mode in music. Music in the minor mode is known to induce feelings of sadness, apprehension or uneasiness. This is due to the dissonant sounds produced because of the minor mode of music used. According the Davies, music has an appearance of sadness, by a slow and quite downward movement, underlying patterns of unresolved tension, dark timbre, heavy or think harmonic bass textures. As stated earlier emotions can be brought on by listening to music by the memories associated with that piece of music, but they can also be brought on by many other things. There are many models used when describing how music effects our emotions. The ʻDarling there playing our songʼ theory is episodic memory where by a piece of music is attached to a particular memory. Juslin in his paper ʻEmotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanismsʼ describes many more models. One model that he describes is the bran stem reflex. This model refers to a process whereby an emotion is induced by music because one or more fundamental acoustical characteristics of the music are taken by the brain stem to signal a potentially important and urgent event. This model ties in well with research by Helmholtz, Curney and Britain, where particular characteristics of the music induce particular emotions in the listener. According to a study by Berlyne Listeners will prefer musical stimuli that includes ʻoptimumʼ levels of physiological arousal. So any song that arouses particular emotions within the listener will be enjoyed more. Juslin describes many other models which are all related or similar in someway. Evaluative conditioning, where the listener has induced emotions to a piece of music because the music has been repeatedly paired with either positive or negative stimuli. Very similar to brian stem reflex in that the listener perceives the emotional expression of the music and then “mimics” theseʼs expressions internally. Another model that Juslin describes is visual imagery. This is process whereby an emotion is induced in a listener because they conjure up visual images, while listening to the music. The emotions the listener experiences are the result of close interaction between the music and the images. When listening to a piece of music listeners may have visual images in there head from what they are listening to, e.g. clear blue skies, rolling green fields. These mental images have been regarded as ʻinternal triggersʼ of emotions (Plutchik, 1984) and studies have revealed that visual imagery associated with different emotions involves different imagery contents (Lyman and Waters, 1989). Research has shown that when people are listening to music, the visual cortex of the brain shows activity. Certain musical characteristics, such as repetition, predictability in melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements, slow tempo, are especially effective in stimulating vivid imagery (McKinney and Tims, 2995). “It seems probable that ... image processes play a role of great importance in the musical affective experiences of many listeners” (Meyer, 1956). Music has such an effect on us, on our emotions and can even have an effect on our well being. Evidence suggests that music can be used to relax people as music has been proven to lower levels of cortisol in the body and raise levels of melotinin which helps reduce sleep. This is one of the main reasons why we hear music while we are waiting in a doctors or dentists waiting room. If this is a particularly traumatizing experience, music being played can help calm us down. The reason that the music usually played in these places is slow, quite and generally easy to listen to, is that it has been proven that this type of music lowers the heart rate of the listener as there physiology mimics the characteristics of the music being listened to. In a study by Michael Taut and his team, detailed how victims of strokes, cerebral palsy and Parkinson's disease who worked to music performed better in their recovery than those patients who had been ʻuntreatedʼ by music. This is just one example of the amazing qualities and ʻpowerʼ of music. Researchers from the Mind - Body Wellness Center in Meadville, P.A, tested one hundred and eleven cancer patients who played drums for thirty minutes a day. They found that the patients who played drums had strengthened immune systems and increased levels of cancer fighting cells in many of the patients who didn't play the drums. In another example the American Music therapy Organization claims that music therapy may allow for ʻemotional intimacy with families and caregivers, relaxation for the entire family, and meaningful time spent together in a positive, creative way. So in this context, music is not only helping the recovery of the patients, but it also aids the family. This is particularly prevalent in mental hospitals where music is played to calm down patients, particularly for patients suffering with dementia, as it has shown to lower levels of confusion. In a study by Blood and Zatore, they asked the musicians to choose ʻstirringʼ music. The subjects where given PET scans as they listened to there chosen pieces of music. Blood said that the subjects chose music that gave them “chills”, the PET scans detected activity in the portions of the brain that are also stimulated by food and sex. Levitin writes, “For music so profoundly to effect this gateway to emotion, it must have some ancient and important function. It has been theorized that music predates language and even agriculture. Recent discoveries in France and Slovenia of sophisticated flutes, made by Neanderthals. Some of these instruments carved from animal bones and are as old as 53,000 years old. No human culture in existence today lives without music. It is something that is common throughout all cultures. Despite all this there is no concrete evidence to support that music is evolutionary beneficial. Scientists have struggled with some very fundamental questions about musics origins and purpose. Questions about why we have music, is it an evolutionary trait designed to aid us in our life' What way does the brain process music' Many scientists have tried to explain the origins of music in the context of evolution. How it has benefited the human species. For it to have stayed with us for hundreds of thousands of years it has to have served a purpose, an evolutionary purpose instead of just having something nice to listen too. Geoffrey Miller of University College London has proposed that musical ability may seem to demonstrate fitness to a potential mate. “.... It appears probable that the progenitors of man, either males or females or both sexes, before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, endeavored to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm” (Darwin, 1871). Having good musical ability may have revealed certain characteristics about ourselves. Being able to sing in key may reveal self confidence and extroversion, were having rhythm may reveal the brains capacity for sequencing complex movements reliably. Being well adept at playing a musical instrument can show a capacity for automating complex learned behaviors, having time to practice also shows not having heavy paternal responsibilities, and hence sexual availability for a mate. In many hunter gatherer type communities the ritualized dancing that occurs can last a very long time, just like many of the hunts that take place among these communities, where they stalk prey until it dies from exhaustion or injury. The ability to dance all night or for the long durations can show the hunters aerobic endurance and hence qualities for mating with. The human species are unique among other primates in that we as groups can form cooperative relationships among other groups. Intergroup cooperation is a foundation of the complex, region wide social structures that characterize humans as humans. It is believed that this breakthrough in ʻIntergroup Affinityʼ may have depended critically on music and dance. Music is an important device for creating group level coordination and cooperation. People learn about there own customs and cultures in the context of musical activity and ritual. Through song and dance people are taught the codes of behavior. This applies to tribal rituals, classical concerts and raves. Musical devices such as rhythm, repetition and polyphony act to increase the meaning and memorability of linguistic messages. As stated earlier there is no concrete evidence to prove that music has been evolutionary beneficial to humans and it is still unknown where music first came from, how it started and why it is still with us today. There is no doubt however that music has proved to be a major factor in the shaping of our species. It aids us in so many ways. Now that many societies in the western world are not hunter gatherer societies, there is still a massive importance in out society for music. Music is just as valuable a resource today as it once was in its creation. It is so important to our societies today that the teaching of music practice and appreciation is taught to our children at a very young age in our school curriculum. Through this teaching and the teaching of other valuable sciences we are learning more and more about music. Where it came from, its history and where it can go in the future. Music is such a big feature of todays society, it is a multi billion pound industry and it is probably the most used form of entertainment all over the world. Throughout the years music has been used for many things. It can be used ti tell a story, it can be used to instill a sense of national pride and can also take the listener to somewhere completely to where they really are. Music has been used for many years in getting peoples messages across, during the 1960’s, many songs were sung during the anti Vietnam war movement, with many music artists of the time coming out to sing in support of the movement, playing songs about the war drew a bigger support base. The civil rights campaign in America, were the protestors sang “We Shall Overcome”, brought the campaigners together under one cause. It is hard to imagine this happening without the influence of music, the sense of unity the people felt as the sang that song together. Music has that power over people. It has the power to bring people together and influence ideals. Ever since its beginning it has been a huge factor to the life of the human species. It has defiantly become a universal feature of human life and behavior. We can see that it can not only be an enjoyable piece of entertainment but research has shown that it can have significant benefits when it comes to out physiology. It can create certain emotions within ourselves, calm us when we are stressed and even help us in the fight against life threatening and debilitating illnesses. Music can be seen as a resource rather than a commodity. I believe through doing this essay that music is an evolutionary trait that has developed in human beings. We developed this musical ability to show off our sexual prowess to potential mates and it has continued to stay with our species as it has proven to have many other benefits. In my mind there is no doubt that music had become a survival technique, developed over millions of years and it has been adopted to suit our needs and the fittest, possibly the most musical survived of our species. Music is not just simply a human being trait. Music is used by many animals, including birds, deer and frogs. All these animals using music to attract mates. From the evidence seen there is no doubt that music is a universal feature if human life and behavior, it has helped us grow and develop as human beings. Before language came along it was our main way of communication through dance song, and rhythm. Now that we have developed language we can now use music for health benefits which many people are taking advantage of. Music is simply more than entertainment, it is a feature of everyday life and it does more than supply a nice sound for us to listen too. BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, Steven. "“How Does Music Work'” Toward a Pragmatics of Musical Communication." Web. Chin, Christina S. "The Development of Absolute Pitch: A Theory Concerning the Roles of Music Training at an Early Developmental Age and Individual Cognitive Style." Psychology of Music (2003). Web. Chin, Christina S. "The Development of Absolute Pitch: A Theory Concerning the Roles of Music Training at an Early Developmental Age and Individual Cognitive Style." 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