Musis Is a Universal Feature of Human Life

Ryan May 40010329 Music is a universal feature of human life and behavior, Discuss. Everybody on the planet has listened to music, the majority of people on the planet would listen to music everyday, either consciously, through MP3 players, CDʼs or on the radio. Many might listen to music subconsciously while in the car or just passing by a shop with music playing inside. Either way we are surrounded by the ʻnoiseʼ which has been based on three distinct and interrelated organizational structures of rhythm, harmony and melody. Music is perhaps the most common form of entertainment for humans, while learning and understanding music have been popular disciplines for people for thousands of centuries. Music is an amazing thing, it can evoke certain emotions in people. These emotional changes can be so powerful they can alter the persons physical state. We detect a piece of music as sad because its dynamic character resembles a persons expression of sadness. People can start crying, get goosebumps on their body and music can send a shiver up the listeners spine. A piece of music may be undeniably emotionally powerful to someone, but at the same time may have the exact opposite effect on another person that has heard it. However what psychologists call the ʻDarling there playing our songʼ theory is common in everyone. This theory is that music has special significance to people depending on the context in which they first heard the piece of music. If it was the persons wedding song or the song they first danced to with their partner the song is remembered fondly. By remembering the song fondly, it can bring back emotions that were first experienced when listening to that particular piece of music. This can be happy emotions from a song played at a happy time such as a wedding, or it can bring about negative, sad emotions from the memory associated with that piece of music, maybe the song was played at a funeral or at a particularly sad time in the persons life. “There is...