Music is a multi-sensory stimulus that actually induces structural and functional changes in the brain. It can physically change your brain! There are some really interesting studies on it.
Music helps us destress, aids in in emotional regulation, helps distract us from things that cause us pain. That’s why it’s often used in medical setting for things like mental health.
Conversely, music can have negative effects on us, depending on the song/sound. As you know, mental disorders like those caused from ptsd can be triggered by music. say you started a song with a heavy organ sound, like one you might hear in a church, it could trigger a memory or experience related to a church setting. Maybe a funeral, for example. That would obviously trigger an emotional response.
Check out the national library of medicine, there’s an article called
“The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease“
Music is one of the most powerful and versatile tools we have. Use it wisely and mindfully, and responsibly.
For me, I write songs as a way to work things out that I'm struggling with or help me understand what I'm feeling either good or bad. It's a way for me to communicate with myself (my self talk) and hopefully help others through the process. I feel the same way when I "receive"/listen to music. The music and often lyrics help me to see and understand what is happening in me and outside of me as I walk through this life with others both relationally and experientially.
I don't know if this fits the discussion, but I frequently experience what I've heard called "frisson" from certain pieces of music. It starts as a body chill or shiver that goes up my neck and sort of explodes at the top of my head as a warm sensation. It can be very intense. Your song "The Fear" does it to me. "Dear Avery" by The Decemberists, "Hold On" by Tom Waits, "Proserpina" by Martha Wainwright, "Play Dead" by Björk, "O Children" by Nick Cave, "Hundreds of Sparrows" by Sparklehorse, a lot of Mozart pieces... all give me frisson, just to name a few. I notice that it often comes from music that builds in intensity throughout the song, or that includes a choir or swelling backing vocals. And my emotional connection to the lyrics is often a factor. I sometimes wonder if there's some ancient human reason for that response.
P.S. bird song/call has a very calming influence on me... your Downy Woodpecker photo made me think of that (could be a Hairy Woodpecker -- I can't judge the scale of him from the photo)
There are a handful, a large handful, of songs, depending on my mood/state of mind, that I can get stuck in a loop on and listen to almost all day. So it definitely stimulates something in me. If any of you are members on The Shins' reddit page, and maybe we've mentioned somewhere on here too, I believe there is a thread there about that. The Shins tune that I get stuck on quite often is, "Caring is Creepy".
For someone who’d normally take the rationalist perspective, your thoughts are quite provocative (though assuming that humans are rational beings is a bold idea in itself these days, I know 🙈).
And I may have to challenge the underlying stimulus-response-mechanism a bit since cognitive and media psychological theorizing operates on slightly different premises today (= basically, that things are more complex (surprise!) and very much dependent on the respective individual in a given situation and their ability and willingness to process any kind of stimuli).
BUT: Taking these as boundary conditions for the equation, of course you will find effects on different levels of abstraction. And speaking from anecdotal evidence (= longitudinal n=1-studies are indeed a valid approach when it comes to investigating differential susceptibilities 😁), I can say that I definitely have that with “ideas” and music and probably art in general: These thoughts that immediately get stuck in your cognitive tracks and derail your usual thinking, so you can essentially watch your brain rewire itself afterwards. I enjoy this a lot!
And with music it’s those pieces that pull you in with the very first sound and don’t let go of you until they’re over (and have ceased to resonate in a plethora of ways – emotionally, indeed, but also cognitively when there are unusual rhythmic patterns involved or daring chord progressions or certain sound qualities… actually, I can’t quite put my finger on it, and that’s what freaks me out!). I recently had this with “The Turmoil” by German jazz pianist Johanna Summer and sax/flute player Jakob Manz (and normally, I’m not that much into jazz) and the third of the Three Pieces for Cello and Piano by Nadia Boulanger. They both caught me totally off guard. And I love that even more!
And I just came to think about this whole idea in the opposite direction, namely what effect music has on animals. Like in those videos where dogs howl along or parrots ‘sing’ the blues or actively demand “Siri, play ‘Barbara Ann’”. I once experienced something similar at an open-air performance when the cows in the neighboring meadow came running over, seemingly fascinated by the music. And if we consider ourselves to be more or less direct descendants...
Would be interesting to see whether this works with any kind of music or if animals have (individual) musical preferences as well (= my guess 😉) – and to know what happens in their brains then... #rabbitholegalore
This concept of "hyper normal stimuli" makes me think of a book I read on the subject some years ago, called "Supernormal Stimuli" by Deirdre Barrett. I can highly recommend it if you're interested in the phenomenon!
Music is a multi-sensory stimulus that actually induces structural and functional changes in the brain. It can physically change your brain! There are some really interesting studies on it.
Music helps us destress, aids in in emotional regulation, helps distract us from things that cause us pain. That’s why it’s often used in medical setting for things like mental health.
Conversely, music can have negative effects on us, depending on the song/sound. As you know, mental disorders like those caused from ptsd can be triggered by music. say you started a song with a heavy organ sound, like one you might hear in a church, it could trigger a memory or experience related to a church setting. Maybe a funeral, for example. That would obviously trigger an emotional response.
Check out the national library of medicine, there’s an article called
“The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease“
Music is one of the most powerful and versatile tools we have. Use it wisely and mindfully, and responsibly.
Good shout!
For me, I write songs as a way to work things out that I'm struggling with or help me understand what I'm feeling either good or bad. It's a way for me to communicate with myself (my self talk) and hopefully help others through the process. I feel the same way when I "receive"/listen to music. The music and often lyrics help me to see and understand what is happening in me and outside of me as I walk through this life with others both relationally and experientially.
I don't know if this fits the discussion, but I frequently experience what I've heard called "frisson" from certain pieces of music. It starts as a body chill or shiver that goes up my neck and sort of explodes at the top of my head as a warm sensation. It can be very intense. Your song "The Fear" does it to me. "Dear Avery" by The Decemberists, "Hold On" by Tom Waits, "Proserpina" by Martha Wainwright, "Play Dead" by Björk, "O Children" by Nick Cave, "Hundreds of Sparrows" by Sparklehorse, a lot of Mozart pieces... all give me frisson, just to name a few. I notice that it often comes from music that builds in intensity throughout the song, or that includes a choir or swelling backing vocals. And my emotional connection to the lyrics is often a factor. I sometimes wonder if there's some ancient human reason for that response.
P.S. bird song/call has a very calming influence on me... your Downy Woodpecker photo made me think of that (could be a Hairy Woodpecker -- I can't judge the scale of him from the photo)
There are a handful, a large handful, of songs, depending on my mood/state of mind, that I can get stuck in a loop on and listen to almost all day. So it definitely stimulates something in me. If any of you are members on The Shins' reddit page, and maybe we've mentioned somewhere on here too, I believe there is a thread there about that. The Shins tune that I get stuck on quite often is, "Caring is Creepy".
For someone who’d normally take the rationalist perspective, your thoughts are quite provocative (though assuming that humans are rational beings is a bold idea in itself these days, I know 🙈).
And I may have to challenge the underlying stimulus-response-mechanism a bit since cognitive and media psychological theorizing operates on slightly different premises today (= basically, that things are more complex (surprise!) and very much dependent on the respective individual in a given situation and their ability and willingness to process any kind of stimuli).
BUT: Taking these as boundary conditions for the equation, of course you will find effects on different levels of abstraction. And speaking from anecdotal evidence (= longitudinal n=1-studies are indeed a valid approach when it comes to investigating differential susceptibilities 😁), I can say that I definitely have that with “ideas” and music and probably art in general: These thoughts that immediately get stuck in your cognitive tracks and derail your usual thinking, so you can essentially watch your brain rewire itself afterwards. I enjoy this a lot!
And with music it’s those pieces that pull you in with the very first sound and don’t let go of you until they’re over (and have ceased to resonate in a plethora of ways – emotionally, indeed, but also cognitively when there are unusual rhythmic patterns involved or daring chord progressions or certain sound qualities… actually, I can’t quite put my finger on it, and that’s what freaks me out!). I recently had this with “The Turmoil” by German jazz pianist Johanna Summer and sax/flute player Jakob Manz (and normally, I’m not that much into jazz) and the third of the Three Pieces for Cello and Piano by Nadia Boulanger. They both caught me totally off guard. And I love that even more!
And I just came to think about this whole idea in the opposite direction, namely what effect music has on animals. Like in those videos where dogs howl along or parrots ‘sing’ the blues or actively demand “Siri, play ‘Barbara Ann’”. I once experienced something similar at an open-air performance when the cows in the neighboring meadow came running over, seemingly fascinated by the music. And if we consider ourselves to be more or less direct descendants...
Would be interesting to see whether this works with any kind of music or if animals have (individual) musical preferences as well (= my guess 😉) – and to know what happens in their brains then... #rabbitholegalore
This concept of "hyper normal stimuli" makes me think of a book I read on the subject some years ago, called "Supernormal Stimuli" by Deirdre Barrett. I can highly recommend it if you're interested in the phenomenon!