The Power of Music on Emotion
Why Does Music Provoke Strong Emotional Responses?
As soon as it is heard the breath quickens and a smile appears. Within a few seconds a fleeting meditation on the past transports you back to a particular place or person.
This reaction may happen before the song is even recognised. How does music connect us to our emotions and how can this connection be used productively in other areas of life?
They Are Playing Our Song
“There is something about music that evolves over time, as do emotions. When we hear the song we re-live the emotional sequence that happened when we first heard it,” says Professor John Sloboda of Keele University and author of Music and Emotion, “that’s why music is more powerful than, for example, smell or painting, it draws you into a sequence of re-lived experience.”
People do not have the same reaction to the same song – ‘Desert Island Discs’ would be very predictable if they did – but what psychologists call the ‘Darling They Are Playing Our Song’ theory is common.
Professor Sloboda continues, “We know from research into the psychology of memory and emotion that close to events of high emotional charge and change the brain takes a ‘recording’ of all the other things that were going on at that heightened moment.
Emotions are tuned to detect change and when the emotional temperature has risen far enough the move from recognising something to feeling something is triggered.”
Musical Triggers
Can these strong musical triggers assist other aspects of life?
Ray Mueller, a member of the Shumei Arts Council of America’s Advisory Board says, “Research has located specific areas of mental activity linked to emotional responses to music. It seems music is a human need and the brain is able to act as a function to satisfy that need.”
He suggests an experiment.
“Go for as long as you can without listening to music – no radio in the car, no singing in the shower, no CD to relax to at home. When you finally succumb, make note of what kind of music you want to hear and what emotional state you want to achieve by listening to it”
The psychological term for this is anchoring.
Anchoring
Stanley Jordan, in an Introduction to Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Music Therapists says “Internal states are essentially feeling and emotional states and when these states become conditioned responses to stimuli, the stimuli are called anchors and these anchors can be used to gain access to these emotional states”
Jordan goes on to explain that ‘setting’ an anchor means forming the association and ‘firing’ an anchor means recreating the stimuli to elicit the emotional response.
How to Achieve an Anchor
There are five stages to setting the anchor using musical stimuli.
- Think of an emotion you would like to anchor.
- Think of the song you would like to use as the anchor.
- Recall the emotion at its peak and not in a diluted state.
- Set your anchor by playing the song.
- Repeat the process.
Research suggests it is important to remember the more times you set the anchor when the emotion is intense, the more related it will become to that emotional state.
Songs to Help Set an Anchor
Choice will be personal but examples that may assist.
Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive (strength and resilience)
M People: Sear For The Hero Inside Yourself (confidence and optimism)
James Taylor: You’ve Got A Friend (reassurance and companionship)
Nat King Cole: When I Fall In Love (relaxation and tenderness)
The Weather Girls: It’s Raining Men (party time)
References: Music and Emotion: Theory and Research - John Sloboda (Oxford University Press (2001)
