Think of the last time a song really moved you, or meant something to you. Listening to and playing music stimulates many different sections of the brain, affecting us physically as well. Why are we as humans so connected to music?

Making music is one of our most basic instincts. There’s a reason we refer to music as the “universal language”; there has been no known human culture without music. Dancing and music came before agriculture, and possibly even before language. Bone flutes were found in Europe dating back 53,000 years ago. The head of the Biomusic program at the National Academy of the Sciences, Patricia Gray, and her colleagues comment, “The fact that whale and human music have so much in common even though our evolutionary paths have not intersected for 60 million years suggests that music may predate humans-that rather than being the inventors of music, we are latecomers to the musical scene.” (Leutwyler)

Music and Childhood

We begin life being affected by music; babies first begin to respond to music while still in the womb. Whether or not it’s true, everyone has heard that playing classical music for your baby supposedly helps him or her become smarter. A study done in the United Kingdom concluded that children are able to recognize and even prefer music that they had heard while in the womb up to three months before birth. Although the genera of music made no difference, the babies who were exposed to songs with a faster tempo showed a stronger preference for that song than those who had heard something slower. (”Babies Remember Music Heard in the Womb”) Researchers have also found that the playing of soft background music or a mother’s humming actually helps premature babies. Those who are subjected to the music tend to gain weight faster and are able to leave hospitals earlier than those who aren’t. (Cromie, “Music on the Brain”)

However, the study in the UK uncovered no links between babies listening to music and increased intelligence or brain development. Another experiment at the University of California at Irvine compared the puzzle-solving abilities of 3-year-olds who were given piano lessons with the ability of others who sang, used computers, or did nothing. The children studying piano were better at the puzzles. Also, high school students with a musical background seem to do better on their SATs. (Cromie, “How Your Brain Listens to Music”) Whether it’s natural intelligence that helps the children excel in both music and math, or the music that helps develop other areas, you can’t deny the benefits of a musical background.

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible that some music and/or lyrics could be bad for children and adolescents. The lyrics of today’s popular music are increasingly explicit. A study on mass media and adolescents showed that a group of “14- to 16-year olds in 10 different southeastern cities showed that they listened to music an average of 40 hours per week.” (”Impact of Music Lyrics…”) Obviously, the music they are listening to plays a large part in their lives, especially influencing self-identity. So any bad influences in the music would have a very direct effect on the adolescent.

Several other experiments mentioned in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy statement on the “Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth” supported this idea. One study from Sweden found that children who developed a preference to rock music were more likely to be influenced by their peers than by their parents. Others showed links between a predilection for heavy metal and detrimental behaviors, including taking drugs, suicide risk, alienation, and other risk-taking habits. The AAP doesn’t support the idea of censorship, but strongly encourages parents to monitor what their children are listening to. We have to ask, should we as a society look at the results of these effects on adolescents and call for regulation in the music industry?

Music and the Mind

William J. Cromie, writer for the Harvard Gazette, explains how we our brain listens to music. “Your inner ear contains a spiral sheet that the sounds of music pluck like a guitar string. This plucking triggers the firing of brain cells that make up the hearing parts of your brain. At the highest station, the auditory cortex, just above your ears, these different firing cells create the conscious experience of music. Different patterns…excite other cells, and these associate the sound of music with feelings, thoughts, and past experiences.” (Cromie, “How Your Brain Listens to Music”) This is just a generalized statement; the actual processes that go on are very complicated, and we don’t really know all that much about them.

No single portion of the brain seems completely dedicated to our perception of music. The right side of the brain is generally associated with music and the arts, but studies done on people who have suffered brain damage show that both the right and left side play a part in musical perception. While the right side is crucial for pitch, melody, timbre, and harmony, the left side takes care of changes in intensity and frequency. Both sides need to be working together in order to correctly understand rhythm. Also, sections of the brain relating to music affect other things. For example, the part of the brain having to do with perfect pitch additionally effects speech perception. (Cromie, “Music on the Brain”) Interestingly, parts of your motor system react when you are simply thinking about a rhythm, even when you’re not moving.

Damage to the temporal lobes, which are part of the cerebrum and lie at the sides of the brain, can cause a disorder referred to as Amusia. People may have trouble with rhythms, recognizing melodies, singing, or playing an instrument. Sometimes the damage can cause little or no problems with hearing speech or other sounds; just music.

Carol Krumhansl of Cornell University found that different types of music directly trigger different emotions. While happiness causes you to breathe faster, sadness causes a rise in blood pressure and temperature and a slower pulse. Faster music played in a major key caused the same physical reactions associated with happiness, and slower music played in a minor key resulted in those associated with sadness. (Leutwyler) This also evokes the question of whether or not minor keys naturally sound “bad” or undesirable to everyone, or if it’s simply what we’ve been socialized to think through the music we’re used to in our particular cultures.

Music and Intelligence

Music is often used as a learning tool. If only we could memorize notes for a test as easily as we memorize popular songs on the radio! Music with a tempo of around 60 beats-per-minute can activates both the left and right sides of the brain, which assists in processing more information at once. Singing and playing an instrument also has this effect.

Listening to music that induces relaxation, such as “Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major,” before taking a test has been proven to temporarily enhance IQ and improve scores. This has since been named “The Mozart Effect.” However, the effects of the music seemed to last only 10 to 15 minutes. The original experiment, published in 1993, has been under scrutiny ever since. Other researchers have tried to repeat similar tests, but have not gotten such positive results. After attempting a complete re-do of the first Mozart Effect test, scientists at Appalachian State University stated, “…there is little evidence to support basing intellectual intervention on the existence of the Mozart effect.” (qtd. in Chudler)

Dr. George Lozanov, a psychologist from Bulgaria, used classical music at about 60 beats per minute to devise a better way of learning a foreign language. Using this method, students “could learn up to one half of the vocabulary and phrases for the whole school term (which amounts to almost 1,000 words or phrases) in one day.” (O’Donnell) The student’s retention rate was an incredible 92%, and he managed to prove that entirelanguages could be learned fairly well within thirty days with this approach!

A separate study performed in Texas tested the effect of music on vocabulary memorization among graduate students. The students were divided into three groups; two groups studied with “Water Music” by Handel playing in the background, one being asked to imagine the words while studying, the other group not. The third group was a control and wasn’t asked to do anything. Groups 1 and 2 had consistently better test scores than group 3, and group 1 did better than group 2. (O’Donnell)

Albert Einstein once spoke about his theory of relativity, “It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition.” (qtd. in Green) As a child, Einstein did very badly in school, and the teachers recommended that his parents not even take the time to continue teaching him. His parents ignored the teachers and instead bought him a violin. Throughout his life, Einstein improvised on his violin in order to figure out his problems and equations, and music was a key factor helping him become the genius we now know him as. (O’Donnell)

Music and Health

Music also has unending benefits on our health. It has been proven that music reduces blood pressure. Scientists are currently testing the effects of playing music games with dyslexics, and how it may improve their reading ability. Music is used to calm Alzheimer’s patients and others with age-related diseases in hospitals and nursing homes, helping to reduce and control conflicts.

Music is commonly used as a form of therapy. According to the American Music Therapy Association, founded in 1998 as a merger between the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music Therapy, music therapy can be defined as, “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” (AMTA Website) This is commonly used to treat everything from physical disabilities to chronic pain to brain injuries. Even healthy people can be benefited through stress reduction or the use of music to aid in childbirth. Nature and other environment sounds can also be therapeutic. Think of how relaxing the sounds of a bubbling stream, crickets chirping, or ocean waves can be. Music Therapy is considered to be one of the “expressive therapies;” others include art, dance, drama, play, writing, and humor therapy.

Although the use of music to benefit health dates back to the days of Aristotle, modern music therapy began shortly after World War II. Hospitals were hiring musicians to play for the hospitalized veterans after seeing the good affect it had on those suffering from war-related mental and emotional problems. Eventually colleges began to implement programs, and Michigan State University began the world’s first music therapy program in 1944.

There are many specific reasons why music therapy works. Music with a strong beat can actually cause brainwaves to “resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state.” (Scott) This can be good for you even after you stop listening, because it helps the brain in changing brainwave speed by itself later.

Researchers at the University of Toronto are developing “brain wave music” (”Brain Wave Music”), a type of music therapy that involves creating music that imitates the patterns formed by individual brain waves. The people they test the music on are given their own CD, with music made for their specific brain waves. They’re hoping that this new approach may help relieve chronic insomnia, anxiety, or depression, even without the additional aid (and risk of dependency) of medication. Could you imagine going to the doctors to get a “prescription CD?”

In addition to causing positive changes in heart and breathing rates, bringing relaxation, and combating stress problems, music also brings a “positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay.” (Scott)

Music and Physical Activity

Mark Tramo, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, commented on a study which “showed that the heart muscle of people exercising on treadmills didn’t work as hard when people listened to music as it did when they exercised in silence.” (qtd. in Cromie, “Music on the Brain”) Researchers from Ohio State University studied patients with lung disease and found that those who listened to music “walked an average of 19 miles a week – four more miles than the control group who didn’t listen to music while walking.” (Bumgardner) Music affects us so much that it’s being banned from sports-related activities.

Most high schools have banned listening to music while running in both track practices and meets. The body in charge of running in the US, USA Track & Field, has officially banned headphones and any kind of portable music player from all official races. One reason to justify this is the physical protection of the runners; while listening to music, they can’t hear directions, and are less aware of the other runners around them. However, this is also meant to protect runners without an audio player from having an unfair disadvantage. But isn’t it fair enough for every participant to be allowed to run with an audio player? If everyone has the opportunity to give themselves an advantage through music, then it’s not unfair simply because some don’t bring an audio player. Not all should be punished.
With today’s iPods and Zunes becoming progressively smaller, how can this rule be enforced? Many people ignore the new rules, including Richie Sais, a runner in California’s Marine Corps Marathon. “‘I dare them to find the iPod on me,’ he said, adding that he had clipped his iPod shuffle, which is barely larger than a quarter, under his shirt.” (qtd. in Macur)

More and more “regular” people are participating in these types of athletic activities. The more serious and professional runners may actually prefer to run without music, but those running for fun or smaller personal goals might be turned off by these music bans. I know when I was in high school I wouldn’t have made it through summer gym without Sean Paul and Aerosmith.

Conclusion

Music is invariably a crucial part of everyone’s life, and has shaped the way we all live and develop as humans. If used in the right ways, it can help us learn, heal, or even make it through that last lap around the track. We still have so much to find out about the way our minds interpret music and how if effects us. Hopefully elementary and high schools will continue music programs, and post-secondary institutions will continue to research what else music can do for us.