Music as an Emotional Trigger

Bedirhan Gültepe^* and Hamit Coskun

Abant Izzet Baysal University Bolu, Turkey

*Corresponding Author:

Bedirhan Gültepe
Abant Izzet Baysal University Bolu, Turkey
Tel: +90 374 254 10
E-mail: bedirhangultepe@hotmail.com

Received date: Mar 14, 2016; Accepted date: Mar 15, 2016; Published date: Mar 18, 2016

Citation: Gültepe B, Coskun K (2016) Music as an Emotional Trigger. J Biomusic Eng 4:e111. doi:10.4172/2090-2719.1000e111

Copyright: © 2016 Gültepe B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

As an important part of our life, music could affect our mood states, being either in positive, negative, or neutral form. Subjective experiences would support this idea, when hearing a song on a radio or a rhythm on a ceremony, etc. Although universal effect of music is a controversial issue, it has been well documented that music influences our mood states. For over two decades, researchers have investigated the effect of music on mood states. The effect of the music on the mood is important not only for scientific curiosity but also for practical fields. Music has many applications in behavioural sciences apart from its therapeutic consequences. That is, music induces people to certain moods, and these mood changes cause the desired response in the individual. For example, people who listened to positive music were more flexible than the people who listened to neutral music.

Editorial

As an important part of our life, music could affect our mood states, being either in positive, negative, or neutral form. Subjective experiences would support this idea, when hearing a song on a radio or a rhythm on a ceremony, etc. Although universal effect of music is a controversial issue, it has been well documented that music influences our mood states [1]. For over two decades, researchers have investigated the effect of music on mood states. The effect of the music on the mood is important not only for scientific curiosity but also for practical fields. Music has many applications in behavioural sciences apart from its therapeutic consequences. That is, music induces people to certain moods, and these mood changes cause the desired response in the individual. For example, people who listened to positive music were more flexible than the people who listened to neutral music [2].

The investigation of discrete emotions (e.g., sad, happiness, anger, and etc.) with music is one of the most needed areas for the future studies. It does not seem enough to examine the music in terms of its positive and negative valence. For example, positive music could alter many different emotions; both enthusiasm and pride are considered as positive emotions as happiness. Therefore, the music research must be more specified on emotions.

Research on the relationship between music and emotions are slightly delayed due to some factors such as strict perspective of behaviourism and measurement difficulties. However, it is almost impossible to deny the impact of music in everyday life in the modern world. People can express their emotions through various types of music. Thus, the effects of various music types on emotions and behaviour (and hence health settings) will become increasingly important avenue for researchers and practitioners.

Much research is needed for underlying mechanisms of music on emotions and moods. For instance, the effects of music on cognitive abilities should be investigated in the medical field. We hope that more research will be conducted in this field, especially with brain imaging techniques. Our other expectation is that there will be an increase in studies using different types of music in social and organizational contexts. Therefore, it is necessary to cooperate with organizational behaviour professionals. Cooperation among researchers in music is not only limited to behavioural science. Music is a field that can be associated with many different disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, medicine, cognitive science, or arts. Thus, an interdisciplinary perspective would be beneficial for investigation of the music effect on emotions as well as for application of it in various professionals.

References

1. Sloboda JA (1991) Music structure and emotional response: Some empirical findings. Psychology of Music 19: 110-120.
2. Gültepe B, Coskun H (2016) Music and cognitive stimulation influence idea generation. Psychology of Music 44: 3-14.