Music is an essential part of our culture today.  Music is part of most of our lives and studies have been conducted to determine if music actually affects your mood – and many of them show that it does. Music is an international language.  You may not be able to speak Korean, but the song, Gangnam Style, was popular in the United States for some time.  If a tune is catchy and people can dance to the song, everyone can speak music.  After all, music has been around since the dawn of time.

The amount of activity of popular sites such as Pandora or Spotify also suggests how much music is a part of our culture today.  Studies continue to show that music is an important part of our health.  According to Alex Ferguson’s research in The Journal of Positive Psychology, people can improve their overall happiness in just two weeks by listening to the right music.  In his study, he conducted an experiment which involved having people listen to music that was upbeat as well as sad music, such as Stravinsky.  The participants who listened to upbeat music, including Copland and other similar artists, reported feeling happier and ready to have fun.  The other participants who listened to music that wasn’t as upbeat reported feeling “gloomier” and not as happy.  In a similar study, The Journal of Consumer Research explained that people who had just been through a sad event in their life heavily preferred sad music over happy music.  In the same study, the participants who had been through a sad or frustrating event, such as breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, getting in trouble, or being stood up on a date, explained that after listening to sad music, they felt a little better.  For this reason, people often use music as therapy.

On a similar note, music has an enormous effect on our brain. It can often trigger multiple secondary responses, such as moving with the music or tapping your foot to the beat. This happens due to the stimulation of neurons in the motor cortex of your brain. Moving to the music or tapping your foot can improve your mood.  Music has also shown to increase energy.  Recent studies have shown that if you listen to music while you work out, you can get one to two more reps on average in every set you do.

So does music affect your mood?  Studies indicate that it does.  But, music doesn’t just affect your mood. Music affects life. People spend money to buy it, listen to it live, or just enjoy it while they’re driving down the highway. It can become a large part of your life depending on how much you listen to it or how much you pay attention when you listen. Music affects us more than we know.