Music has always been a part of human culture, developing and evolving along with mankind. Musical instruments have been found from thousands of years ago showing that humans have always had a form of music to listen to. Music is made and listened to by virtually every person on the planet. Through the decades music has shifted to better express the needs of society. Music serves as a way for individuals to explain how their feeling or for others to identify common themes to identify with. Music surrounds us everywhere we go in shopping malls, churches, cars, and parties. Whenever people gather, for weddings, graduations, sports events or funerals, there is always music there. Music has woven itself through our lives, involving itself in our most important events in life. Since listening to music is such an everyday occurrence, it doesn’t appear to hold much importance besides for entertainment purposes although music has more of an affect than people think. We can see how music affects our moods and emotions through anxiety, stress, and creativity levels. 

Anxiety levels are steadily rising in current society and through music there might be a way to lessen the stress that most individuals feel. Individuals’ anxious emotions are measurable through physiological measures like blood pressure. Through these measures we can actually see the affect music has on people’s mind. A study at Texas State University showed that individuals with testing anxiety had physiological changes in blood pressure and heart rate while listening to calming music (Lilley, Jennifer L., et al). With music being an abstract concept it’s difficult to measure its impact. Since there’s physiological changes in people with test anxiety, there’s a strong influence of how listening to calming music can really impact someone. Test anxiety is only one of the many stressors that calming music can help lessen. 

School alone, at any age, can attribute to everyday stress a person might feel. The task of presenting can easily put anyone in a bad mood which then affects their overall performance. An early 2000s study revolved around university students since they appear to hold more stress and anxiety than other groups of people. The study had the participants listen to music before going to give a presentation on the subject they were studying. They tested physiological responses to stress like blood pressure and heart rate. The participants were tested before the stressor event and then once after the stressor event. They had control groups that went through the experiment without listening to any music. They concluded that the groups that listened to calming music had less anxiety and stress. Through the information collected through blood pressure, heart rate, and self-reporting questioners, they were able to show that calming music was able to lower individuals stress levels to anxiety provoking tasks. 

Stressful emotions can lead to depressive moods which according to some researchers can be lifted through the impact of music. Researchers at Miami University school of medicine investigated the effects of music on chronically depressed individuals. The researchers had a group of chronically depressed female adolescents listen to rock music for 25-minute sessions and compared that with a control group of chronically depressed female adolescents who just sat and told to relax their minds for the same time period. EEGs were recorded, and saliva samples were taken before and after the sessions to determine the effects of music on stress hormone levels. The results showed that the group of females that listened to rock music had less stress hormones than the group that simply sat quietly trying to relax. Through these studies, they offer concrete evidence of the effects music can have on individuals’ moods. It’s difficult to measure mood and emotion but with physiological responses to different moods it makes the argument of music’s affects more concrete. 

But there’s not just physiological changes that happen when listening to calming music there is also an emotional response that has been reported by individuals who listen to calming music before a stressful event. Music creates a calming atmosphere and helps relax the mind and promotes increased thought process (Fitzpatrick). The idea is that listening to music you enjoy will get you in a positive mood which in turns promotes productivity. It lets people get into a relaxed headspace that helps with thought process. There’s a benefit to having background music playing, it can help the mind become more focused. But keeping the right tempo and sound level is important or a person might become distracted by the music (Adams). Relaxing the mind is key to keep ideas flowing and making music or listening to music is a way to distract the mind.

Creativity itself is hard to measure or explain considering it various from person to person. Simone Ritter from Radboud University in Nijmegen and Sam Ferguson at the University of Technology in Sydney decided to test the power of music by setting 155 people in their late teens and twenties a series of puzzles to tackle in silence or while listening to classical scores ranked as either calm, happy, anxious or sad (Sample). The study tested two measures of creativity, convergent thinking that involves deep thought and divergent thinking which is used for coming up with original ideas. For convergent thinking one of the things the participants had to do was the Duncker candle test which they had to figure out how to put a candle on the wall and light it without wax getting on the table. With divergent thinking, they had people think of different uses for a common household object. The end results showed that upbeat music didn’t influence convergent thinking although it did boost divergent thinking. 

Music can serve to help heal our minds of stress and anxiety while also promoting creative thinking which is vital in being a successful adult. Simply listening to music provides emotional boosts but having background knowledge of music can also serve as a way for people to understand the impact it has. Having background knowledge of music itself can serve as a better way for people to understand music and then the impact that it has. Throughout his book, Daniel Levitin aims to help his audience get a “better understand of what music is and where it comes from, so we may be able to better understand our motives, fears, desires, memories, and even communication in the broadest sense” (Levitin 12). Understanding the mechanics behind music can help individuals utilize the full effects that music has. 

With a topic as abstract as the mind it’s difficult to study the things that influence it. Though music clearly has an impact on a person’s moods and emotions. It’s shown through physiological changes that there is something happening to individuals when they listen to music. People’s moods and emotions are influenced by the environment around them and through knowing what kinds of music affect them, they can work towards achieving their most productive moods. Music isn’t an artform that’s going away anytime soon. Music, as it has evolved in humankind, allows for unique expressions of social ties and the strengthening of relational connectedness (Schulkin and Raglan). If society can find a more useful way to integrate music into the healing methods of the mind, then stress and anxiety levels could lessen overall. 
