The Importance of Music

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:12:50 GMT

A lot of us listen to music. Some of us listen to the stuff every day, some of us can't live without it. Music is attractive enough for some people to pay exorbitant prices just to listen to a performance for an hour or two. It can draw people together creating feelings of group identity, and some music evokes a range of feelings and behaviours.

Why create music?
Personally I think the creation of music is really just a good outlet for self-expression and creativity.
Tied in with this idea of music as self-expression, music really goes back to animal communication, like the musical sound of bird song. Maybe that's why prehistoric man started making music.. and since then, although (a lot of us) can communicate just fine with speech rather than song, we've sort of evolved to have an inbuilt affinity for music. Apparently it was about 5,000 years ago that people really started making musical instruments for pleasure.

What do we enjoy about music?
I think it fulfils some sort of emotional need and can help you through any mood... When you're feeling happy, listening to a really upbeat tune can amplify that feeling of jubilation, and similarly when you're feeling down or angry, an appropriate track can sometimes help release some of those feelings.
Also music is often a really good stimulus to take you back for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, whether it takes you back to the days when your parents used to sing you to sleep, or whether it reminds you of someone or of some event from the past..

Interesting side note on the effects of music
Heavy Metal and Rock kills...!
One study by a guy called David Merrill apparently found that playing heavy metal music to a bunch of rats led them to all kill one another... If music can have such an impact on rats... makes you wonder what impact it can have on us!
On a similar note, Retallack (1973) founnd that plants exposed to rock music for 2 weeks grew very tall and droopy, with faded blooms, and most had died within 16 days. Seems plants did enjoy a bit of jazz, Bach and tabla though.
(source: http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_psychology_of_music)

Oh and There are journals on all this!
I didn't realise that his was such a well studied field. Apparently there are quite a few journals on this subject - Music Perception, Psychology of Music, Jahrbych Musikpsychologie, Musicae Scientiae, Journal of New Music Research, Psychomusicology, Empirical Musicology Review.. wow.. It's a whole world.

Via Con Me - Paolo Conte

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:55:37 GMT

chips chips! :)

MC Solaar - La Belle et Le Badboy :D

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:49:04 GMT

Thanks Toot :)

Befour - Magic Melody

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:41:19 GMT

Thanks Papo!
[hmm my video embedding techniques seem not to be working anymore :/ I wonder what I'm doing wrong. oh well.. at least the song titles are still there for future reference]

Leona Lewis - Better in Time

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:13:36 GMT

This song reminds me so much of that Atomic Kitten song - "The Last Goodbye". Still - great song.

Linkin Park - Numb (piano)

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:55:03 GMT

Thanks Dan :)

Fruits Basket opening titles

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:46:48 GMT

Einaudi - Nefeli

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:06:01 GMT

this

Einaudi - Le Onde

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:04:01 GMT

Thanks Sol for introducing me to Einaudi :) Definitely a new fave

Einaudi - Questa Notte

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:03:01 GMT

Beautiful

Animusic - Aquaharp

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:00:26 GMT

This makes me wanna learn to play the harp.... hmm

Yann Tiersen - Comptine D'un Autre Ete L'apres Midi

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:55:31 GMT

This music is sooo beautiful
Thanks Sol!

L1OR's Space!: Music