Surprising Ways Music Affects and Benefits our Brains

Music has become an integral part of our life even without our knowledge. Regardless of the genre of music one listens to, it is always a pleasure that lights up the mood and gives a pleasant feeling. The one thing that has so much influence on our lives also has influence on our brains. Here are the most common effects that our brain experiences when a particular kind of music is heard.

Music influences perception:

We can usually pick if a piece of music is particularly happy or sad, but this isn’t just a subjective idea that comes from how it makes us feel. As a matter of fact, our brain response varies according to the genre of the song.

We normally tend to listen to the kind of music that suits our present mental state. Likewise, our brain responds differently to happy and sad music. Even tiny bits of a music heard can affect the way we perceive certain things. A study has proved that after having a heard a little part of music, the participants were observed to interpret neutral expressions as happy or sad, that was compatible with the kind of music they had heard. The similar results were found with other facial expressions as well but most commonly with neutral faces.


The interesting thing about our emotions that are affected by music is that there are two types of emotions: perceived emotions and felt emotions. This explains that at times we understand the emotions in music even without feeling them. This is why a few people enjoy sad music rather than depressing. Unlike in our lives we do not feel any danger or risks when we listen to music so we perceive emotions without having to feel them that seem almost like the vicarious emotions.

Moderate music stimulates creativity:

Music has always inspired us while we are at work but it has been observed that loud music is not always the preferred choice. Unsurprisingly, music at moderate level is a key to tapping hidden potential.

According to the research, moderate music is responsible for stimulating better creativity out of professionals. In short, when we strive to work things out, we take help from creative mediums. Since, we are already distracted by the high pitched music, we find it difficult to concentrate and process the required information accurately.

Music portrays personality:

In a research conducted on young couples, it has been found that when taken a look at each respondent’s top 10 favorite songs did actually aid in understanding the personalities better. The attributes used in the Big-5 Test were then used in classifying them.

For instance, Blue fans donned high self esteem, creativity, extroversion and gentleness; Bollywood fans on the other hand, are creative and outgoing.


Music can enhanced driving abilities of people:

Another research stated that if given a choice of the driver’s own music choice, silence or safe music choices, drivers would obviously go for their own playlist. But the entire crux of the research is that drivers who preferred their own playlist tend to drive more aggressively and were more prone to mistakes while driving. Even more astonishing is the fact that listening to unfamiliar playlist reaped better results.

Furthermore, it can enhance logical aspects of our brain, improve concentration and motivates us to work out effectively.

So, pump up the volume and keep listening to music and if anybody lectures you about it, make them listen to it too! After all who hates music?!