Frazier 1

Physical Effects of Music

Thesis Statement: Music is a big part of everyone’s life. Some cultures are even centered around

music. Though people may say that music is bad for you, there are many benefits to music, both

physically and mentally. Music can boost physical performance, improve memory, and overall

make people emotionally and physically better.

I. Music can boost your physical performance.

A. Works just like performance enhancing drugs

1. Boosts confidence

2. Enhances the function of neural networks

3. Releases dopamine and other brain chemicals

B. It makes you want to move

1. Sends positive messages to brain about your movement

2. "Hypes” you up

3. Keeps your nerves stimulated causing favorable changes in hormone

levels

C. Synchronised music movements can shift your level of workout

1. Music can balance and adjust movements

2. Can be used to prolong activity

II. Music can improve your memory

A. Uses the whole brain

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1. Reaches part of the brain that can’t easily be reached

2. The brain “lights up” in activity

3. Keeps the motor cortex in check

B. Boosts brain chemicals

1. Playing music with others or enjoying live music stimulates the "trust

molecule" and the "moral molecule" since it is building a bond and trust

with others.

2. There has been evidence to show that the oxytocin increase experienced

by music lovers can make them more generous and trustworthy.

3. A 2010 review reported that learning to play an instrument may enhance

the brain’s ability to master tasks involving language skills, memory, and

attention.

C. Allows one to think more clearly

1. The brain already operates by rhythm

2. Register information easier

3. Easier to learn languages 0

III. Music can overall improve your emotions and make you a better person.

A. Calms and heals

1. Reduces blood pressure

2. Boosts immune system

3. Relieves stress

B. Positively effects
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1. Better mood

2. Helps deal with physical and psychological conditions

3. Sends good signals to brain

C. Increase personality

1. Can make you more empathetic

2. Change your attitude of people different from you

3. Can boost cooperation and connection

IV. Counter-argument

A. Depression

1. Many songs are very melancholy and depressing

2. Likely to act like a psychological poison on the listener who allows its

depressing influence to permeate them

B. Badly affects memory and mind.

1. A study reported by the Scripps Howard News Service found that

exposure to rock music causes abnormal neuron structures in the region of

the brain associated with learning and memory

2. Rock music is able to modify the body chemistry and make the mind

susceptible to modification and indoctrination

C. Reply:

1. While some songs are depressing and melancholy, they not only help
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people though their problems, it’s also only a small fractions of songs like

that.

2. Rock music may badly affect the mind and memory, but not only is rock a

small portion of music genres but only a small amount of people have

problems with these symptoms.

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Tyler Frazier

English 4

Mrs. Taylor

April 29, 2019

The Physical Benefits of Music

Music is a big part of everyone’s life. Some cultures are even centered around music.

Though people may say that music can be bad, there are many benefits to music, both physically

and mentally. Music can boost physical performance, improve memory, and overall make people

emotionally and physically better.

Listening to music can boost one’s physical performance. For many, listening to music

acts just like a performance-enhancing drug such as a steroid. Studies show that listening to

music during exercise increases the efficiency of that activity and boosts endurance. As Jeremy

Gray, employee of TigerFitness said, “When people ask me why I am almost constantly listening

to music, it's hard to explain to them why. This subject is rather near and dear to me, I've been

using music as a performance enhancer in school and in the gym for years.” There are many

ways it does this such as by boosting one’s confidence, enhancing one’s neural network

functions, and releasing brain chemicals that make the body feel good. The way it boosts

confidence is by sending good and positive messages to the brain, which is the reason for most

effects that music has on people, which in turn can boost one’s confidence about how well that

person is doing in either their workout or whatever they just so happen to be doing. Music
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enhances the function of the neural networks in the brain which, in turn, increases specific bodily

functions. And finally, listening to music releases certain brain chemicals such as dopamine,

which make the body feel good and provides a “boost” (Gray).

Listening to music also works like performance enhancing drugs do by making one want

to move. It does this by sending positive messages to the brain about one’s movement. It tells

the brain that the body is doing great and needs to move. It does this by hyping one up. It

“hypes” one up to get them motivated into doing activities such as working out or going for a

quick jog. Really it just puts the body in a position where it feels good about working, which is

also why people tend to listen to music when cleaning one’s house, yard, etc… Another thing

music does is keeps nerves stimulated, which causes favorable changes in hormone levels, that

motivates one to move. It stimulates these nerves by accessing the whole brain, which is only

one of the few activities that actually do. (Ruani).

“Music is the ‘Art of combining or sequences of notes into harmonious patterns

pleasing to the ear and satisfying to the emotions; melody.’ Music has been

known as the ‘international language’ because it is all over the world and does

not know any political or geographical boundary.” (MUSIC AND THE

NERVOUS SYSTEM).

Other ways Music acts like a performance-enhancing drug is by synchronizing the beat of

the music to the body’s movements to keep a constant rate of the workout. Basically, the body

wants to keep at the same rate as the music which pushes the body to stay at tempo. The heart

plays a big part in doing this because it is the heart that beats to match the music, however, once

the tempo reaches a certain high or low, this no longer works. Though, by having the ability to
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do this, music will balance the body movements. As a study from Brunel University has claimed,

“An athlete or exerciser whose goal during warm-up is elevating the heart rate to 120 beats per

minute should select accompanying music that has a tempo in the range of 80–130 beats per

minute” (Karageorghis). This will not only keep the body up to tempo, but it also prolongs the

activity of the body. It holds off any kinds of fatigue for longer periods of time, which goes along

with the “hyping” perk when listening to music (Ruani).

Music has a lot of impacts; one of the impacts are improved memory. It does this by

using the whole brain. It can reach parts of the brain that can’t easily be reached. The reason this

happens is that the brain needs to use almost all of its functionality to even understand or

comprehend the music. This creates a “pop up” and “light up” in brain activity. Other ways it

uses the whole brain is by keeping the motor cortex in check, which is the part of the cerebral

cortex in the brain where the nerve impulses originate that allow volunteer muscular activity

(The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research).

Music also improves one’s memory by boosting brain chemicals. Evidence of this

includes that playing music with others or enjoying live music stimulates the “trust and the moral

molecules” since it is building a bond and trust with others. This is mainly associated with

bonding and things of that nature because music is a large part of cultures as previously

mentioned. There has also been evidence to show that the oxytocin increase in the brain

experienced by music lovers can make them more generous and trustworthy. And also a 2010

review reported that learning to play an instrument may increase or enhance the brain's ability to

master tasks involving things such as language skills, memory, and attention. Learning how to

play an instrument can help with these things because as previously mentioned, music uses all
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parts of the brain, that combined with the muscle movement and memory of playing each

individual note, can overall improve these skills (Harvard Health Publishing).

Another way music can improve one’s memory is by allowing one to think more clearly.

This is because the brain already operates in rhythm. Music also helps one to register information

easier, which goes along with the fact that the brain works and operates by rhythm. The human

body also speaks in rhythm, which means that it is also easier to learn and comprehend other

languages with music. “We find that the ability to tap consistently to a beat relates to the

consistency of the auditory brainstem response to sound, a measure that has also been linked to

reading ability” as said by nina kraus, Journal of Neuroscience (Mac).

Music can also improve one’s overall emotions and make them a better person. It does

this by calming and healing the body. It reduces blood pressure by relaxing the person into a

state of calming. It also boosts the immune system which can reduce any kind of sicknesses.

Along with keeping the nerves stimulated comes the immunity which is also stimulated to the

point where the body can fight off sickness and disease easier. Also, music relieves stress by

calming and soothing one, which works similarly in how it decreases blood pressure (The

Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research).

Music can also improve one’s overall life with the positive effects that music has. It tends

to put most people in a better mood. This is because not only is there music or a song to make

any situation better, but there is literally a song for everything, from sunsets to pandas, there is

no topic that a song hasn’t covered. Music also helps people deal with physical and

psychological conditions. Along with calming one, it helps them control the brain in a similar
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fashion to learning an instrument. Music also sends good signals to the brain that makes people

happy and feel good. This is because of the chemicals in the brains that music releases (Gray).

More ways music can make one a better person is by increasing one’s personality. One

way it does this is by making them more empathetic. This is because people are subliminally

following what the music says for example, former American singer Michael Jackson has a song

“Heal the World”, in which multiple studies, including Tobias Greitemeyer, showed that people

who listened to this song and its positive messages were more inclined to be empathetic and

show more remorse and be positive themselves. As Greitemeyer had said, “Repeated encounters

with prosocial media may yield long-term changes in personality through the development and

construction of knowledge structures”, which basically means when people listen to more and

more of this music, the effects are shown to be even stronger (Allen). Songs also can change

one’s attitude towards people different from them, such as gender, race, sexual preference, etc..

There have been more studies by Greitemeyer which show that prosocial music and other media

can pretty much stop different kinds of biases. There also has been evidence that music can make

one more cooperative and boost their connections. This is because music is something that most

people have in common, which gives something similar between almost everyone. As Summer

Allen, an employee of the Greater Good Magazine had asked, “Could this mean that moving to

the beat could help you find a new friend at a party? Further research is needed.”(Allen) Which

shows that there is still much more to learn about the social part of music. But this, along with

the fact that music helps people concentrate because it calms nerves and keeps them focused, can

boost productivity and cooperation (Allen).

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Some might say that music puts people in a depression state. They say this because many

songs are very melancholy and depressing. “There is no more contemptible type of human

character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering

sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed” as said by William

James in his book: Principles of Psychology (Assagioli). Songs are also likely to act like a

psychological poison on the listener who allows its depressing influence to permeate them.

While this may be true, most people only go to this depressing music when they are going

through something in their lives such as depression, and this type of music usually helps people

with what they may be going through (Assagioli).

Others might even claim that music badly affects memory and the mind. A study done

by the Scripps Howard News Service found that exposure to rock music causes unusual neuron

structures in the region of the brain associated with learning and memory, which is not good.

Rock music is also able to modify the body chemistry and make the mind susceptible to

modification and indoctrination, messing with their mind, giving the “metalhead” characteristics.

This can even lead to a bad life, as Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “If one listens to the

wrong kind of music he will become the wrong kind of person; but conversely, if he listens to the

right kind of music he will tend to become the right kind of person” (Hegarty). While, yes these

claims are true, they only affect a small portion of people, and these claims were only specified

towards the “rock” genre, which is only a small portion of music (Hegarty).

In conclusion, while music has negative impacts on the brain and society, there are more

positive impacts that outweigh the negative ones. Music is really good if the right kind is being

listened to. Music also works as a performance enhancer to help boost the body’s production and
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stamina. Finally, there is literally a song for any situation anyone could go through so there is

music to help people with whatever problem that person may have. But the study of music and

its effects is still in the infancy stage of research. So, from what is known, music really is not all

that bad after all.

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Works Cited:

Assagioli, Roberto. “The Harmful Effects of Music on Body and Mind.” ​The Unbounded

Spirit,​ 9 Sept. 2017,

theunboundedspirit.com/the-harmful-effects-of-music-on-body-and-mind/.

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. “Music Is Good for the Soul, and

Your Health.” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers, 11 Aug. 2017,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/201708/music-is-good-the-so

ul-and-your-health.

Gray, Jeremy. “The Positive Impact of Music on Mental and Physical Health.” ​TigerFitness

Bodybuilding & Workout Supplements, Whey Protein Powder,​ Tiger Fitness Inc, 19 Apr.

2018, www.tigerfitness.com/articles/post/music-mental-physical-health/.

Harvard Health Publishing. “Music and Health.” ​Harvard Health​, July 2011,

www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health.

Hegarty, Jacqueline. “Potential Negative Impact of Music.” ​Arlene R Taylor PhD,

Realizations Inc,​ 2018,

arlenetaylor.org/music-and-the-brain/7410-potential-negative-impact.

Strum, Lora. “Can Music Make You a Better Athlete?” ​PBS,​ Public Broadcasting Service, 8

Aug. 2016, ​www.pbs.org/newshour/science/can-music-make-you-a-better-athlete​.

Ruani, Alejandra. “4 Remarkable Ways Music Can Enhance Athletic Performance.” The Health

Sciences Academy, 25 Mar. 2016,

thehealthsciencesacademy.org/health-tips/music-can-enhance-athletic-performance/.
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“MUSIC AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.” MUSIC AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM,

musicnervoussystem.weebly.com/.

Karageorghis, Costas, and David-Lee Priest. “Music in Sport and Exercise : An Update on

Research and Application.” The Sport Journal, 7 July

2008,thesportjournal.org/article/music-sport-and-exercise-update-research-and-applicatio

n/.

Allen, Summer. “Five Ways Music Can Make You a Better Person.” Greater Good Magazine, 14

Nov. 2017,

greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_music_can_make_you_a_better_person.

Mac. “The Secret Method for Learning Any Language: Rhythm.” TakeLessons Blog, Maile

Proctor Https://Tl-Cdn.s3.Amazonaws.com/Images/LogoTagline.svg, 18 Mar. 2016,

takelessons.com/blog/language-learning-methods-z14.