Tell me what you listen to so I can tell you what you are

Published 07.04.2024 | By Йосиф

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Tell me what you listen to so I can tell you what you are: how does music reveal a person’s character?

Music is not just a word that sounds beautiful by itself. It is a feeling that awakens in almost everyone a sense of harmony, calmness and relaxation. It is a time for rest and meditation. Music is a kind of language that takes a different look at the classical understanding of a “foreign language”.

It unfolds in different styles and genres, arranged in low and high tones and unfolds in the chorus of each song. Its origin comes from the Greek language and means “art of the muses”. But in fact, she is much more than that. It is freedom, tenderness and airiness. Feelings oozing from every line and phrase.

Music is an escape from reality and a journey to dreams. Everyone has their own personal interpretation of its meaning that cannot be described in words. The reason lies in the secret that the essence of music is not expressed verbally – it is felt with the heart and soul, it hides all around us and awakens different emotions – sometimes we feel sadness or joy, other times we get goosebumps and listen rapturously until the end of the piece of music .

But how exactly does music affect the brain and why does it evoke different emotions in us? Much research has been done to find answers to these and other related questions.

Leather orgasm

We can start from there, how the skin reacts to music, or in other words – what is a skin orgasm or “frisson” (from the English language).

When we hear a song that excites our senses, our skin gets goosebumps and the hairs on it stand up even more. At such a moment, the brain releases dopamine. It is a catecholamine – a substance performing the function of a neurotransmitter released by neurons. It is also called the hormone of addictions. Students were tested using a technique called diffuse tensor imaging, a type of nuclear magnetic resonance. It turned out that those who got goosebumps from music had a denser volume of brain fibers compared to others who didn’t get goosebumps from music.

This means that the former manage to absorb received information more efficiently. Another assumption is simply a person’s high level of emotionality. Such people are more open to experiences and more factors affect them, and they are more easily influenced by them – they are more anxious, more afraid, more easily influenced by other people’s opinion and are more offensive.

According to several studies done in the early 1990s, it was also found that music has a more favorable effect on the administration of anesthesia in the operating room, i.e. it is perceived by the patient faster and better. It even reduces the percentage of baby colic in diapers by up to an impressive 75%, instilling responsibility, order and discipline of the spirit and protecting it from negative emotions throughout the child’s growing period

An interesting influence of music is that it can reveal the basic traits of a person’s character. Like colors, every musical style has different meanings.

Various sources cited in this material bring out the qualities that different people possess according to their preferred musical genre:

⦁ Blues – high self-esteem, freedom, vitality, improvisation, calmness;
⦁ Jazz – self-respect, creativity, responsiveness, freedom, intelligence;
⦁ Country – hard work, sympathy, emotional stability, sociability, responsiveness, workaholism;
⦁ Classic – self-respect, introversion, freedom, inner harmony;
⦁ Rap and hip-hop – self-confidence, responsiveness, extroversion;
⦁ Opera – self-respect, creativity, attention;
⦁ Reggae – laziness, getting closer to God, freedom, high self-esteem;
⦁ Dance – energy, sociability;
⦁ Rock / Heavy metal – tenderness, agreeableness, selfishness;
⦁ Pop – extroversion, observance of traditions, hard work, responsibility, friendliness.

Music therapy

Music therapy is used to relieve certain conditions, such as stress and grief, and to treat disorders such as depression, anxiety, panic disorders, autism, stuttering, hyperactivity and attention deficit in children and to diagnose mental health needs.

Music therapy is also accepted as a psychotherapeutic approach, in which music is used for purposeful mediation of the body-mind-emotion connection, in the process of experience and awareness, with the aim of charging with positive emotion, supporting healing, and human development. Music is also prescribed for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The therapy includes movement exercises combined with music in order to distract patients from the thought of the disease.

In our country, psychologists from the Bulgarian Music Therapy Association work with such methods.

According to other studies, however, music does not always have a positive effect on our brain functions. And she is not only responsible for deaf ears. The reason lies in the fact that in some styles, mainly electronic ones, the heartbeat adjusts to the frequency of the music and beats with its speed. Then it is even possible for a person to have a heart attack. IN clubs where such music is mainly heard, it is recommended that people do not stand near the columns and periodically go outside the establishment so that both the heart and the ears can rest and return to their normal rhythm.

All these studies, and many more, prove the connection between psychology (or psyche is better) and music. Or more precisely, the impact of the psychology of music on the human brain. From them we can draw conclusions that music is not only entertainment and condensing time. It is an external factor that not only awakens various processes in our country, but also has healing powers, with which it heals soul and body.
Teodora Pavlova

https://novini.bg/razvlecheniq/muzika/838601