No matter the time or day, everywhere you look there’s someone wearing headphones. On the train, in school, or on the street. Wired and wireless earbuds and headphones have become an essential for many people’s everyday life, including myself.
But we’re not here to discuss the popularity of earbuds, we’re here to discuss what’s being played in those earbuds. Music, the different melodies and genres, resonating with so many different individuals from so many different backgrounds, changes the way people view the world on a daily basis and becomes a kind therapy.
Often people don’t realize the role music plays in their everyday life. It’s important we recognise the effects music can have on someone’s mood, personality and overall life. Everyone has that one song that just never gets old; it can almost feel like the song was made for you. Every time you hear it, your heart fills with a sense of security and joy. Or that song that hypes you up. It makes the listener feel motivated and helps them overcome the day to day struggles. As a young person in this day and age, it’s important to understand what you’re going through and ways to help yourself, music can be one of those ways.
The idea of music being a kind of therapy has always lingered in time. In ancient civilizations music was often used for healing by physicians. As time went on music began to be played for soldiers during the world wars to cheer them up and lighten the mood. And used during the antebellum period by people of color to help them overcome the numerous amounts of oppression that they faced.
The first real record of music being used for medicine was a publication titled The Columbian Magazine. The author focuses on two “passions of mind”: grief and joy. The author discusses an intermediate space between both feelings stating “the mind enjoys composure or serenity; and the body may then be said to be only subject to its own functions.” There are many ways to interpret this statement, the way I interpreted it was that the mind loves to wonder as the body continues with its physical duties. Everyone will interpret this differently, but no matter how you interpret it, the message is still present.
As time goes on, the advocacy for mental health is doing nothing but increasing. Music is known to have properties that help with said problems, reducing the stress hormone cortisol. Many high school students struggle with mental health and stress and look for ways to relieve that stress. Music provides a safe and supportive environment for healing trauma, decreasing anxiety levels, and building resilience. So effective that schools such as Berklee, NYU, and Florida State University have begun to offer music therapy programs, offering degrees ranging from Bachelor’s to Doctoral in said programs.
Research also shows that music making activities like songwriting, playing an instrument, and group singing, can be a form of emotional release and can promote self reflection. Music therapy has also been known to help children with disabilities, assisting them with social skills, emotional regulation and communication. It even assists older individuals with memory loss.
Music has climbed insane mountains in medicine, transforming medicine as we know it. Finding new methods of therapy that are affordable and safe is very important. Music being not only affordable but safe as well. Think about. How has music affected you?
