Hey guys,

I just spent the last couple of hours listening to some of my favorite ballads, folk/classical/chill out tunes, you know, light stuff and I must say there's nothing like being alone with your music.

Music rejuvenates you from within like no food or drink can. It lifts your mood and sustains it without taxing you with a crash afterwards like with drugs or alcohol. It comes cheap, and it's reusable practically forever.

I was checking out the forums and I saw a link posted by Xanadu on a similar thread by Naqoyqatsi (The effect of music upon the body). Here's an excerpt from the study:

"We have shown here that music recruits neural systems of reward and emotion similar to those known to respond specifically to biologically relevant stimuli, such as food and sex, and those that are artificially activated by drugs of abuse." www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=58814

After reading that, I remembered a music teacher telling me the effect of music on plants. I remember her telling us that the plants that were placed in a room with classical music grew far better than the one's that were placed in a room with rock/metal music playing. So, I checked online and it looks like she got that from a study made by another person. Anyway, here's an excerpt from that study:


"In the chamber with the soothing music, the plants were growing healthily and their stems were starting to bend towards the radio! In the rock chamber, half the plants had small leaves and had grown gangly, while the others were stunted. After two weeks, the plants in the soothing-music chamber were uniform in size, lush and green, and were leaning between 15 and 20 degrees toward the radio. The plants in the rock chamber had grown extremely tall and were drooping, the blooms had faded and the stems were bending away from the radio. On the sixteenth day, all but a few plants in the rock chamber were in the last stages of dying. In the other chamber, the plants were alive, beautiful, and growing abundantly."
www.dovesong.com/positive_music/plant_experiments.asp

What got me interested is that I always thought that listening to music was a cognitive function but this and other studies seem to show that it affects us on a more basic level. Indeed, there should be more studies made in this vein. If music is so beneficial and even essential, we should rethink its uses and go beyond the pastime status that it currently holds.

Maybe our kids will be listening to music during lectures. Maybe doctors will be prescribing music instead of anti-depressants, maybe scientists will discover the rhythm and melody that emanates from our planet, solar system and even our universe - like the heartbeat we hear while still in our mother's womb, coupled with the tonal nuances of our mother's voice.

There's really more to it than just rhythm and melody. Whenever I listen to music, it renews me, it makes me want to write, discuss, create. It's like a trigger that makes me want to perpetuate it in myself and with others. I feel this way every time I listen to music. Does anyone else here feel the same way? How does it affect you?

lorsban

By the way, the study posted by Xanadu asked participants what songs gave them that spine-tingling feeling. For me, it's Faraway by Apocalyptica, Brothers in Arms by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Just Wait by Blues Traveler, Eyes Wide Open from Cafe Del Mar, By Accident by Liquid Tension Experiment (although this is the type of song that would cause my plants to wilt), Mama Said by Metallica, Mediterranean Sundance by Paco De Lucia and Al Di Meola, My Baby by Seal, I Believe by Paul Simon (or was it Art Garfunkel?), Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel, Here, there and everywhere by the Beatles, Sobrepena by Hevia, Gravity of Love by Enigma, and a few more.

What are the particular songs that have that effect on you guys?

Although I am a classical music FANATIC and an avid pianist, I have to say, I think "studies" that show that classical music has some sort of objective worth are total BS - especially the kind of classical music usually involved in these things, which is the typical Mozart/Beethoven/Brahms/ Bach/ Schubert - if I had to listen to nothing but these composers (aside from Bach) I think I would be morbidly depressed - now that we have more imaginative works thanks to the maturity of Wagner, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin, R. Strauss, Bruckner, Sibelius, and Schoenberg. Yes, the earlier musical idioms are likely to have the same effect as food and pleasures of the flesh, because the strict theory from which their creation arose is entirely about achieving suavity. With the loosening of these, there are more archetypes that can be presented with our music, which is alot more than those similar to eating and sex (which is what the earlier music acheived). If anything, it is the later music that is likely to nurture well-being, since a wider scope of archetypes is presented.

But comparing early classical music (Baroque, classical, and early romantic eras) to rock music, I find it highly unusual that people try to find ways to assert the importance of the early classical over rock, considerign the same, simplistic theory of harmony is being used in both - in rock there is often more abrasive sounds and timbres, but as harmony, there is scarcely any difference (aside from unprepared modulations), and rarely is Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin (aside from some of their more decidedly contrapuntal works) more complex than the popular music today.

Secondly, about plants having similar reactions to humans, somehow - I think by far and away the most important authentic discovery (along with the Unconscious) is that of primary perception by Cleve Backster: www.primaryperception.com/bio/

But comparing early classical music (Baroque, classical, and early romantic eras) to rock music, I find it highly unusual that people try to find ways to assert the importance of the early classical over rock, considerign the same, simplistic theory of harmony is being used in both

It's true that the melodies are pretty much similar in the different genres but the way these melodies are presented is basically what gives the music it's "flavor." The rhythm of the song is probably just as important as the melody in delivering the message. The same melody or chord sequence can probably be used in pop, rock, metal, folk music and give a different vibe.

and rarely is Mozart, Beethoven or Chopin (aside from some of their more decidedly contrapuntal works) more complex than the popular music today.

I guess it depends on which types of music we're comparing here. Because I'd think that classical music was far more complex than today's pop music. With classical music there are a lot of counter-melodies involved and it's more progressive in nature. But there are definitely modern songs today that probably trump a lot of classical music in terms of sheer complexity.

By the way, thanks for the Primary Perception link, that's definitely interesting.

I find this song fairly spine-chilling

Can you give a link to the Xanadu thread? Or, which forum is it in?

Having trouble moving around ephil right now. But you can find the thread in the Aesthetics forum. It's entitled: the effect of music on the body. There's a funny poll attached to it as well. You won't miss it, it's on the first page. You'll find Xanadu's link somewhere around there.