One of the most important topics in music psychology is how music affects emotional states. Its ability to evoke strong emotional outbursts, such as relaxation and elation, in the same listener.
Positive emotions are associated with musical experiences and pleasurable music may release neurotransmitters associated with the reward system such as dopamine. Listening to music is an easy way to change the mood and relieve stress. People use it in their daily lives to regulate, reinforce and reduce unwanted emotions such as stress and fatigue. How does listening to music stimulate feelings and pleasure in listeners?
1- Emotions:
Music often creates a strong desire to move while listening to it, such as dancing and moving our feet, or moving our internal rhythms as slowing and accelerating heart rate to blend in with the rhythm, meaning that we float and move with
Music.
2- Emotional mimicry:
Music affects not only individual feelings, but also the level of relationships between individuals and groups.
Listeners reflect what the music expresses in the form of reactions, such as sadness when listening to sad music and joy with happy music. It also affects the mood of shoppers and diners.
3- Consumer Behaviour:
Background music influences consumer behavior. One study of shoppers in the beverage section of a store when playing French and German music revealed that French wine was sold more than German wine when French music was playing, while German wine sales increased when German music was playing.
4- Mood change:
People seek refuge when they are going through difficult times to avoid grief and sorrow. Music provides them with a way to arrange their feelings. People listen to music for many reasons, including to invigorate and maintain focus when performing certain tasks or to ward off boredom. Sad music enables them to let go of the feelings associated with a traumatic situation, such as a breakup or someone’s death, and focus on the beauty of music instead.
Lyrics that go with the listener’s experience can give an embodiment of his feelings and enable him to express what he finds difficult to express.
5- Our perception of time:
Music can change our perception of time as it is a powerful emotional stimulus. We note that time passes quickly as if it flies when listening to it. We usually hear music in waiting rooms to reduce the feeling of long wait times or in shops to encourage shoppers to stay longer and buy more.
Listening to pleasant music distracts us from time and the feeling of shortness of time seems to be associated with listening to soft, slow-paced music.
6- Finding oneself:
Music is an influential medium and may help to develop one’s personality. Young people are a beast of identity through music as we see in the movie Blinded by the Light, where we notice the power of the impact of the artist’s songs on Javed and touching him to experience it on a personal level and help him find his hidden voice that he did not know existed. His lyrics encouraged him to cling to his dreams, find love, and prove himself.