Influence of music essay

Theodore Rice, a local Chicago resident was asked about his lifestyle on Fox News and one of his comments were, “ Music made me who I am”. Music is often deemed as “ bad” or “ corrupt” due to its lyrics and style.

It is even said that some artist’s music has hidden lyrics when played backwards or slow. I personally think that people are just looking for flaws and just making reasons to criticize music. It has been tested and proved that music does affect human behavior depending on how open the person is to music. Meaning if they are not willing to let music change the way they act, live, talk and think then it will not and vice versa.

While some people claim music is bad, it is a form of expression for others. Music is a way of life, one can relate to music. Music influences our moods, if I listen to a happy song it picks me up.

Music teachers believe that it brings a positive attitude and discipline in their student’s life. Music can influence people by the music alone or in combination with lyrics. Music may invoke certain feelings or memories. Many people can associate a song to a particular period of their lives.

Though music has its flaws and SOME of it is explicit people shouldn’t bad mouth it, because one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Many people say that rap is bad, rap has a negative influence, rap is for low life’s, and even, and rap is the root of all crime. “ Rap is definitely horrible with its lyrics. They have an extremely bad influence on the youth. There are just too many kids in my school that keep implying that being “ black” is “ cool”. Most girls are now always referred to as ’sluts’.

I’ve heard that there is underground rap that is not as much about being a gangster and stuff, but people just make rap for the money, so they only make stuff about negative things as an above poster mentioned. Also I just can’t stand listening to rap, and it is unfair that they make huge amounts of money off making rhymes about “ da hood”, when rock bands have to actually work hard and play instruments. And by the way, at least in death metal bands, they can actually play instruments” (“ Rap Is Bad for You? ”). People say rap causes bad behavior, it does and people model their life after it. Rap also degrades women harshly. Rap is soooooo bad, all it does is degrade women but I do have to say, some of it is good but not much I just think it’s unpleasant to listen to. It does not sound good.

Not very musical” (“ Rap Is Bad for You? ”). Researchers have examined the effects of music and how it provokes violent behavior. This was an important research project because people spend a lot of time listen to music. They used these studies to see whether music provokes people to act violently. Two researchers discovered that after only 15 minutes of listening to a violent song increases their natural aggression towards others. It’s been proven the music does indeed goad bad behavior. “ Hardcore, cutting edge lyrics are newsreels of the inner city depicting ghetto realities in ways heretofore have gone unreported” said Chuck D and Ice Cube in interview from “ Taking the Rap: Where to draw the line? ” Many people do not know the harsh realities of streets; therefore, artists bring actions to the public by rapping and singing. Don Eversley said, in “ Rock and Responsibility”, “ I don’t think songs necessarily teach people anything in three minutes, but they certainly raise issues and get people to think” (Hughley, D2).

Hip-Hop superstar Eminem raps chillingly realistic scenes of graphic violence but says fans should not take it seriously” (Nagourney, 12). Rappers put the thought that it is ‘ cool’ to act like a ‘ ruffian’. People tend to follow the crowd and model their life the same way a rich person did.

Even if the person they are modeling their life after got their money through criminal means. Some people think that, “ Oh he killed somebody and he has respect now, maybe it will work for me if I kill somebody. ” When they get caught and go to jail they cannot give a logical answer as to why they committed the crime.

Music has multiple effects on the way humans behave but they can be controlled depending on the person. Music affects us in many ways. The number one way music influences us is in our mood. When we are upset or depressed about something, we then listen to one of our favorite, positive, blissful song. Fact is, our mood is going to change.

If we are already happy, and we then listen to a slow, sappy song, that makes us think of sad things in our life. Fact, Our mood is going to change. Music can influence people. Music does many things for the human body including, masking unpleasant sounds and feelings, slowing down and equalizing brain waves, affecting respiration, affecting the heartbeat, pulse rate, and blood pressure, reducing muscle tension and improving body movement and synchronization, affecting the body temperature regulating stress-related hormones, boosting the immune function, changing our perception of space and time, strengthening our memory and learning, boosting productivity, enhancing romance and sexuality, stimulating digestion, fostering endurance, enhancing unconscious receptiveness to allegory, and generating a sense of safety and well-being. Music suppresses the unwanted feelings.

It helps us through the problems in our life. The result of the suppression of the feelings can be anywhere from killing someone to finding the cure for cancer. Conferring to a recent study, “ the positive affect is associated with greater relative left frontal EEG activation and negative affect is associated with greater relative right frontal EEG activation” (Field and others 109). The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart’s music and elaborate music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, initiate the left and right brain. The coinciding left and right brain action exploits learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Likewise, actions which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the mind to be more capable of processing information.

According to The Center for New Discoveries in Learning, learning potential can be increased a minimum of five times by using this 60 beats per minute music. A Bulgarian psychologist designed a way to teach foreign languages in a fraction of the normal learning time. Using his system, students could learn up to one half of the vocabulary and phrases for the whole school term (which amounts to almost 1, 000 words or phrases) in one day. Along with this, the average retention rate of his students was 92%. His system involved using certain classical music pieces from the baroque period which have around a 60 beats per minute pattern. His research proved that music helps us learn faster. In 1982, researchers from the University of North Texas performed a three-way test on postgraduate students to see if music could help in memorizing vocabulary words. The students were divided into three groups.

Each group was given three tests – a pretest, a posttest, and a test a week after the first two tests. All of the tests were identical. Group 1 was read the words with Handel’s Water Music in the background. They were also asked to imagine the words. Group 2 was read the same words also with Handel’s Water Music in the background. Group 2 was not asked to imagine the words. Group 3 was only read the words, was not given any background music, and was also not asked to imagine the words.

The results from the first two tests showed that groups 1 and 2 had much better scores than group 3. The results from the third test, a week later, showed that group 1 performed much better than groups 2 or 3. However, simply using music while learning does not absolutely guarantee that the person will remember everything but it can possibly improve it. Contextual music in itself is not a part of the learning process, but it does enter into memory along with the information learned. Also, tempo appears to be a key of music’s effect on memory. Though music can be questioned about whether it’s good or bad, the purpose of it is to express one’s feelings.

I guess what I’m trying to say is music is helpful to the mind and body. Just because people think music has an evil purpose whether it’s the illuminates, crimes, or violence. What would happen if there was no music? How would musicians express themselves? I just think that if someone doesn’t like a certain type of music they should avoid that genre instead of saying bad things about it. Music is about expressing you. Basketball players have basketballs, artists have paint, and musicians have instruments.

People should just leave the music that they think is ‘ bad’ out of their life. Whether it is rap, rock, alternative, etc. it is all a form of self-expression.