Music and Emotions

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Music and Emotions

Music is something that we find around us almost everywhere we go. Music elicits certain emotions in us, such as happiness, sadness, nostalgia, among others. One reason why music creates these emotions is what we associate the music with. For example, from our environment, parties and weddings tend to play upbeat and fast songs, which we come to associate with happiness. The second reason why music elicits emotions in us is due to musical expectations (TED 02:56). Everyone has a genre of music that they like, such as hip hop, RnB, jazz, and classical music. When an RnB fan listens to an RnB song, they can almost anticipate what is to come in a song. The listener may be able to hum along to a new song in the genre because they are used to listening to similar kinds of music. Expressions and emotional movement also elicit certain emotions when listening to music (TED 04:46). For instance, when a song starts with sounds of people arguing and slamming doors, the listener predicts that it will be a sad song. Finally, music could elicit emotions just because it acts as an activating sound. Just like alarm clocks activate the mind, music activates emotions in listeners.

Works Cited

“Emotional responses to music | Hauke Egermann | TEDxGhent.” TED. 2 September 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzFgoaZ9-VQ