Final Post: Why the World Needs Music

Everyone needs music... but why? Why do we listen to music? There's so many reasons that someone could choose to listen to music! For example someone could listen to music to help express their feelings, this could look like listening to sad music when you're sad or happy music when you're happy. Others choose to use music as a social bridge, sharing music with others and forming relationships through that. It could be a way for people to maintain focus when doing homework. For most, it's a great way to pass time when you're bored or driving for long periods of time. The National Institutes of Health put it simply by saying that "[people] use it principally to relieve boredom, maintain a pleasant mood, and create a comfortable private space." (NIH, Department of Psychology) The truth is, there's so many reasons that people listen to music, why some write it, and why others play it. Psychology Today breaks it down into "5 Reasons": musical pleasure, mood regulation, nostalgia, aesthetic pleasure, and identity motive. When looking at music from a psychological point of view, it activates the part of our brains that is tied with pleasure. That means that music can improve our moods, help us focus, and relax our bodies. Music also is a strong way to evoke emotions, emotions like nostalgia. Music can be tied to emotional events and when listened to, remind us of those events. Of course, people can listen to music just because they enjoy the aesthetic aspect of the song. Just enjoying the sound of music can be enough to make it our top played song sometimes. The part of this article that interested me was the topic about identity, I suppose, it makes total sense but I never really stopped to think about it. As said by Psychology Today, "Music helps us to show that we belong to a given social group. Music is part of who we are." (Psychology Today, Heshmat) I suppose it makes total sense, I feel like it kind of feeds into the sense of expressing yourself through music. 

Since the holiday season is beginning, let's look at the song "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" by Michael Bublé. I particularly like this version because of Bublé, he just has a "Christmassy voice" to me. I'd say this song fits into the nostalgia category if we looked at it from the Psychology Today article. People choose to listen to this song, and many other Christmas songs, because it helps invoke a feeling of happiness that we associate with the holidays.  Even when it isn't Christmastime, when we listen to holiday music during any point of the year, it's associated with the warm feelings the holidays bring. This version is one of the most beloved versions of this song even though it was originally performed by Perry Como. This song is fairly slow paced, likely to give a soft magical feeling. The most prominent instrument in this song seems to be the piano and a small string section. There's some supporting instruments like a clarinet, a trombone, and a few others. The lyrics describe a typical holiday season, the descriptive language paints a picture of something I'd imagine in a Hallmark Christmas movie. 

Another reason that people listen to music is because it sounds good! Music doesn't always have to have a deep emotional meaning behind it. Take the song "Mr. Blue Sky" for example. This song, produced by Electric Light Orchestra doesn't really have a meaning. The song pretty much just talks about seeing the blue sky after not seeing it for a bit. What makes this song special is the sound of it.. there's a simple beat to it with some fun effects to make it stand out. In this song, there's 4 guitars (2 electric, 2 acoustic), bass, 3 keyboards, drums and other percussion instruments, 2 violins, 2 cellos, and vocalists. At around 3:45 in the song, it takes a turn a changes the sound of the song. It's got a different beat and sound to it and sounds like a complete different song. Even with the twist thrown in, it still ends with a nice slow, dramatic ending. 

To wrap things up, we listen to music for many many reasons. Music makes our world a bit more tolerable. Through all of life's ups and downs... we always have our favorite songs to fall back on. We have our music to help us remember special events, we have our music to help welcome in happy memories, and we have our music just to keep us happy!

Citations: 

“5 Reasons Why We Listen to Music.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-of-choice/202110/5-reasons-why-we-listen-to-music. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

“Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky (Official Video).” YouTube, youtu.be/aQUlA8Hcv4s?feature=shared. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

“How Many and What Instruments Are in ‘Mr. Blue Sky’?” Quora, www.quora.com/How-many-and-what-instruments-are-in-Mr-Blue-Sky. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

“Michael Bublé - It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas [Official HD Audio].” YouTube, youtu.be/QJ5DOWPGxwg?feature=shared. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Schäfer, Thomas, et al. “The Psychological Functions of Music Listening.” Frontiers in Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 13 Aug. 2013, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3741536/#:~:text=Seemingly%2C%20people%20today%20hardly%20listen,create%20a%20comfortable%20private%20space.