Music plays a significant role in our daily lives since it is not only a specific subject for musicians but also participates in all human beings’ activities in both conscious and unconscious ways. People might choose to listen to music or sing in various circumstances. The genres of music they choose vary according to their situations and their own tastes. One of the most important relations between music and human being can be the interplay of music and emotions. That is because many people listen to music to obtain a particular emotion they want or to accompany their current emotions. It is known that music has the ability to induce different kinds of powerful emotions (Juslin and Sloboda, 2001). Therefore, how music interplays with and induces human emotions becomes the most meaningful topic to research on. To be specific, different styles and elements of music can affect and induce a person’s emotions and particular feelings. In addition, the context (e.g. personalities, own experiences, environments) that combine with these characteristics can lead to different results. Regarding this topic, one of the significant theorists in history is John Sloboda who wrote “Music and Emotion”. In this book, it is stated that music can convey different emotions through the combination of elements according to rules (Juslin and Sloboda, 2001). For example, different harmonies, chords, and intervals. In addition, in the book “Exploring the Musical Mind: Cognition, emotion, ability, function”, John Sloboda said that humans engage with music since it has the power to evoke or enhance valued emotional states (2004). The major emotional responses can be cued by the expectancy within the musical structure (John Sloboda, 2004), which convincingly answered the question mentioned above. One of the other theorists who plays an important role is Alf Gabrielsson. In his work, he stated that people’s emotional responses can be affected by the combination and interplay between music, personalities, and situational factors (Gabrielsson, 2001). Thus, even if the same music is applied, different results will occur on different people or on the same person within different environments, which also potently solve people’s doubt. These theorists and their studies give people important conceptions and ideas about music and emotions. More studies will be examined in order to further assist our research in the areas of interest.
The first study that will be analyzed was done by Katrina McFerran, Philippa Derrington, and Suvi Saarikallio (2019) which examined music, adolescents, and well-being. In chapter one, the lens of crystallization was used particularly to examine how different possibilities that music can be engaged by various perspectives such as young people, music therapists, and music psychologists. The crystallization was used to capture the multiple and slippery ways in which knowledge is constructed from a variety of angles (Ellingson, 2017). This can be a smart choice compared to the normal methods used in studies since it helps the researchers to analyze the topic from a different point of view. In this way, it can provide a deeper, more thorough, and more objective result and understanding. In addition, different vignettes were used in each part throughout the whole study to illustrate the idea more clearer and in a more believable way. This can be a story that might happen to everyone. Therefore, people can have a sense of empathy and intuitively be convinced. However, less data analysis was done in this study. This can be a disadvantage compared to other studies since the qualitative and quantitative data can help to convey the result of a study in an easier way so that people can figure out the idea only by analyzing the data. This can be an important method in research. Without this, the credibility of the study might be decreased since it lacks support from data. In general, the most important finding in this study involves the potential influence of music on current young people’s emotional responses. It has the possibility of being used for human health outcomes where emotions are taken into consideration. This idea can be useful not only to the music therapist but also to normal people in their daily lives to handle emotions. In my daily life, music plays an important role to help me handle both positive and negative emotions. To be specific, music can be a great way for me to relax or to bring me energy. When I feel depressed when I am busy with my study, I may play some music with light feels that conveys the idea of happiness. This is really helpful that I always feel better in this way. Moreover, if I do not have the energy to do my assignments, I will play music with fast rhythms that will make me more energetic. These experiences show that the result of the study is meaningful and can assist further studies that research deeper on this topic.
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Secondly, the study of Adam J. Lonsdale and Adrian C. North that focus on the reason why people listen to music and the importance of music in humans’ daily lives will be examined (Adam J. Lonsdale and Adrian C. North, 2011). Unlike the previous one that focus only on young people, this study researched people of different ages and their different choices of music had also been analyzed. In this study, the researchers investigated a number of people on why they choose to listen to music. It was conducted through the approach called “uses and gratifications”, which simply asked the participants to state and report their thoughts on their own reasons for this topic. The participants had also been asked to rate the number of potential motives. Compared to the previous one that is lack data analysis, this study made good use of data gathered from the investigation. To be specific, several tables had been created to show the statistical and integrated data, which presents the result more clearer. It can also be more convincing by showing the original data to readers. This is a common method for presenting the result of research and reports of experiments. Furthermore, they also calculated factors, which is a better way compared to only presenting original data since it makes it more direct and easier to analyze. The result of the study shows that there are several main reasons why people listen to music. These include managing moods, creating background noise, distracting from boredom, learning the world, passing the time, and enjoining music. In different age groups, many differences regarding their reasons had been found. It is also found that music is fairly important to humans. These findings are very believable since I have also found these in my life. In the most situation of listening to music, I was trying to regulate my mood to either make myself happy or energetic. Sometimes I listen to music because I feel bored or need some background noise. Enjoying music is also a big part of it. In addition, music can be one of the most important elements in my life I need to enjoy music every day no matter what reasons I have. However, all of these results come from our own minds and we cannot detect unconscious thoughts, which might be the drawback of this study.
The last study called “Familiarity mediates the relationship between emotional arousal and pleasure during music listening” which will be analyzed was done by Iris Evan Den Bosch, Valorie eSalimpoor, and Robert J Zatorre (2013). This study examined the links between music and emotional arousal. It mainly focused on the pleasure that occurs that can be presented by the combination of self-report and electrodermal activity (EDA), which consists of skin conductance level (SCL) and skin conductance responses (SCR). In addition, the familiarity of the music and expectations of it had also been considered as a factor that might affect people’s pleasure while listening to music. Compared to the previous two studies that gathered data only through participants’ own words and thoughts, this method is more scientific by measuring true data that come from participants’ bodies. These can indicate their responses, especially pleasure, in a more accurate way and will minimize the other factors that might influence the participants’ responses. Similar to the second study, it also made use of the data and present it directly using tables and charts, which is a great idea in this kind of experiment. The findings in this study show that novel music can evoke a positive emotional response, which is a pleasure. However, familiarity and expectation can influence this effect. Unfamiliar music might obstruct people from feeling pleasing and neutral. More familiar music and more expectation would boost the level of pleasure since they will result in dopamine release that can make humans feel enjoyable and happy. This gives me an idea of why I feel more engaged after I have been familiar with the songs. I usually can not feel the ideas the songs want to convey for the first time. After listening several times, my level of pleasure will increase and I will feel more engaged in the music. In addition, it can be more pleasant to listen to the music styles that I am familiar with. Specifically, k-pop songs will make me pleasure easier than other styles that I have less contact with. This means that the findings of this study can be believable and might be meaningful for the usage in either daily lives or music therapy areas for the choice of music. However, one limitation of this study might be it used too many scientific results with fewer participants’ thoughts. Even if it made the result more accurate, it can also create some side effects. That is because emotion is a subjective consciousness and people’s own feelings are important to consider. Thus, more responses from participants could be collected to perfect the findings.
In conclusion, regarding these three studies, they all have strengths that can be learned and several limitations might exist and could be improved. For example, in the last two studies, the methods of presenting data in a clear way through tables and charts can be the most important elements in the experiments and studies. This can not only make the result visually clear but also support the findings in a more convincing way. However, the third study relied too much on scientific data but ignored the participants’ real thoughts. This can be further improved by combining more self-reported data as studies one and two did. Specifically, both study one and two investigated the participants and gathered their own thought, and based the findings on their responses. The scientific data like EDA in the third study could solve some of the problems with the second study since it might detect some unconscious reactions that participants can not feel by themselves. Therefore, for further research, the methods that had been used in these three studies could be combined to achieve a better result. To be specific, both participants’ own responses and scientific data should be collected. They might be combined and compared in order to figure out a more complete and objective finding. Just like Borja said about the importance of data presentation, “a figure is worth a thousand words” (Borja, 2014). Moreover, participants’ voice is very important as well since interviewing or investigating is an important method of data collection in research (Fox, 2009). Therefore, in future research, none of these elements could be ignored to build better studies that can contribute more useful ideas in music and emotions.
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