How music affects mood

Did you know that listening to music can have both a mental and physical impact on your body? Music licensing company PPL PRS can tell us more

While most of us listen to music for entertainment, we should also know that it can help boost your overall wellbeing,” Andrea Gray, managing director of PPL PRS told us.

“From reducing stress and improving cognitive performance, to encouraging and inspiring creativity, the power of music is truly amazing. In fact, researchers at Stanford University have even claimed that music seems to be able to affect brain function “to the same extent as medication in many circumstances”.

Here are three ways music can affect us.

1Music can influence your mood

Music can have a huge effect on emotions, that’s one of the reasons why composers add music to films – they want you to feel sad, happy, angry or scared at the right time. You’ve probably chosen music yourself to evoke a particular reaction in your brain, just like when gym-goers put on a motivational playlist to get them through a workout.

‘Impact of Music on Mood: Empirical Investigation’ 2015 research by Nawaz Ahmad shows that music can affect our emotions. Happy, upbeat music causes our brains to produce chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which evokes feelings of joy, whereas calming music relaxes the mind and the body. But, whilst music can influence our mood, our mood can also influence the music that we choose to listen to.

2How music affects mental health

According to the British Association for Music Therapy, music can help those with psychological, cognitive or communicative needs. Aiming to help mental health patients address issues they can’t address through traditional therapy; music therapy, relies on a sensory stimulation to provoke a positive response to certain situations. It can include not only listening to music, but making music too.

One of the main reasons for the success of music therapy is that music helps keep your cardiovascular system in tune. Listening to or performing music can have an effect on your heartbeat, either speeding it up if there’s a higher bpm on the track or slowing it down when you hear more relaxing beats.

3Music can reduce stress levels

Listening to music has the potential to relax our minds as well as our bodies. One study at Marien Hospital Herne in Germany, revealed that even heavy metal music can help lower your blood pressure. And with high blood pressure both a cause and symptom of stress, this shows that even the most intense music can help you cope.

Cortisol is the human stress hormone, and the higher it is, the more stressed we feel. Research has found that symphonic music can lower cortisol levels, regardless of the listener’s music preference.

Whether you’re into the Beatles, Beethoven, or Boyzone, it might be worth popping on your favourite playlist while you’re at work to help manage your stress levels and boost motivation. Visit pplprs.co.uk to find out more.

FROM REDUCING STRESS AND IMPROVING COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE, TO ENCOURAGING AND INSPIRING CREATIVITY, THE POWER OF MUSIC IS TRULY AMAZING