Listener affectation based on musical style is a topic I’m fascinated by, and it inspires and informs my work as both performer and composer.
This article speaks to the idea that all music is medicine, a statement that has resonated with me for decades and even appeared on my business cards. My biggest takeaway from this article was that consonance (or beautiful, pleasing sound) creates happiness within the listener, while dissonance (clashing, non-harmonious sound) caused tension. This is something I’ve seen in every genre of music I’ve participated in, even classical music.
Every musical style has a profound affect on listeners, though I also had a few additional thoughts…
Every listener has a different nervous system, and each nervous system has a unique response to musical stimuli. For example, people who enjoy hard rock and heavy metal (like myself) will often respond in ways that are seemingly paradoxical to the information in this article. For those individuals, that “aggressiveness” is handled in a more constructive way, even evoking the visceral physical memory of joy and release from participating in “moshing” or being closely surrounded by others at a live music event.
On the contrary, someone whose nervous system is triggered or heightened due to trauma may not register those same emotions, even falling asleep while listening to the most brutal, aggressive music at loud volumes. These same listeners may even get agitated while listening to more soothing musical styles, like classical or New-Age.
My point to these musings: music is as much a drug as any chemical substance and can be responsibly used for the treatment of more ailments than we as a society are currently willing to acknowledge. Use that “medicine” wisely, with the understanding that not everyone has the same nervous system that you do.
Music & the Body
Search
Popular Posts
-
Brick-and-Mortar Closures and How that Affects the Music Landscape
Change can be a good thing, even if it means that old systems we’ve become accustomed to are no longer available to us. As change happens around us, we adapt and evolve. This article discussed how Sam Ash – a major national music retail company – closed its doors earlier this year, after over a…
-
Preparation, Practice, and Persistence
Preparation makes a world of difference in any field. Focusing on a task for a finite period of time develops familiarity and confidence. Beyond that, repetition is paramount to successful execution of any task, creating self-awareness to foster both proficiency and creativity. If you prepare correctly and often, you can accomplish most tasks. This article…
-
Audience Engagement in Performance Settings
Audience engagement is everything in a performance setting. It’s the job of the performer to transport the listener: the performer emotes their own feelings and experiences through the act of performing, which inspires and creates those same or similar emotions in the listener. It’s a beautiful process, one that is inherent throughout humanity yet undervalued…