Annotated Bibliography

O'Donnell, Laurence . "Music Power ." Music and the Brain . N.p., 1999. Web. 20 Mar 2012. 

                    <http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.htm

This website is written by Laurence O’Donnell and he does a good job providing interesting facts and statistics on how music affects the body.  The author himself is a musician and plays the bassoon, therefore he has direct knowledge on how music affects him personally.  Throughout his website he breaks down specific ways for how music affects the body, making his website more reliable.  For example, he talks about bodily responses to music, the power of music on memory and learning, healthy effects, and music’s effect on plants and animals.  He presents his website well by adding various pictures related to the information being provided and also adds some color to the page.

Campbell, Music's affects on the Human Body . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar 2012.                                                              

                <http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/~dthompso/exhib_03/jasonc/Music's_Affects
                _on_the_Human_Body.html>.

Campbell Index is used throughout this website as a source and the site each way possible that music has on the body.  Campbell did a fantastic job giving its audience a full understanding of how music affects the body in such a large way.  This happens because examples were provided throughout the website after they had just explained a major topic.  For example, after the website discussed the topic about how music reduces muscle tension and improves body movement and coordination, right after stating this was an example on a study conducted by Colorado State in 1991.  By providing examples for most of the issues discussed, the audience finds it more believable and easier to understand.

. "eMedExpert ." How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health. N.p., 2011. Web. 20 Mar 2012.                

                 <http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml>.

eMedExpert is a unique free online company dedicated to providing a website that gives great information on health and medicine.  Throughout the site they try to encourage their audience that music affects people and promotes health.  They do this by providing reliable information, statistics, pictures, and examples.  Key points they cover through the website include music heals, effects of music on the brain, music improves physical performance, music helps to work more productively, improves mood, and help to sleep.  This website has 35 references, so that explains that the website is reliable and contains a lot of information from various other places.  This website also provides links to enable you to visit other websites and learn more about that specific topic.

Gray , Richard . "The Telegraph ." Music can boost your immune system . N.p., 21/03/2012.                                 
                            Web. 20 Mar 2012. 

The telegraph is a powerful website originated out of UK providing various news about sports, finance, blogs, fashion, and travel.  This news is global and updated each day on the site.  For this specific website above explains how music can boost the immune system.  The author is Richard Gray and he is a science correspondent.  His style of writing involved direct quotations from various doctors that were giving facts and opinions about the topic music boosting the immune system.  One of the examples they provided was that listening to music in hospitals could show benefits for patients and lead to a shorter recovery time.  By providing information from doctors makes this source reliable due to the fact that doctors have more knowledge than just the average human being.

. "eSSORTMENT." How Music Affects your Mood . N.p., 2011. Web. 20 Mar 2012.  

                    <http://www.essortment.com/music-affects-mood-62015.html>.

eSSORTMENT is a website company that is a source for knowledge providing a variety of articles and websites for a variety of topics such as medicine, health, clothing, business, education, travel, and food.  The website above explains how music affects your mood and gives its audience various ways music can be more involved in their life.  For example, they tell their audience to take advantage of your public library’s collection of music.  The reason they want people to be so involved with music is because music affects our mood and is a great mood enhancer.  Overall, this was a great source and did a good job providing tips, examples, and important information to its audience.

Dean , Jeremy . "PSYBLOG." Seven ways music influences mood . N.p., 2007. Web. 20                                 
                       Mar 2012.  <http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/03/seven-ways-music-influences-                 
                       mood.php>.

PsyBlog is a website about scientific research on how the mind works.  Jeremy Dean is the author and he does research at University College London, and working toward a PhD.  In this source I used the author explains seven ways music influences mood.  These seven ways include entertainment, revival, strong sensation, diversion, discharge, mental work, and solace.  For each of the seven ways the author included a description of the term which helped his audience comprehend what he was thinking.   Although, the web site is short it’s specific and right to the point including all of the information needed to know the way music affects mood.

Music's affect on Mood

Where can you not find music in this world? You can’t, because it’s everywhere.  This is because it has easy access and is growing as we speak.  I think the reason music is so big today and everyone enjoys it is because music has such a big impact on a person’s mood.  No matter what type of genre you listen to, it makes your mood better.  Therefore, putting more music in your life is a powerful doing and will result in a more cheerful/relaxing person.  Putting more music in your life would be an easy goal to accomplish due to the fact that you can listen to music in a car, airplane, shower, bathroom, buildings, and computer.  Basically, you can listen to music everywhere if you have headphones and most buildings and restaurants play music.  Also, the internet offers easy access to download various music either free or for a price.  The music is then easily directly to a computer hard drive, cell phone, or iPod.

Now, we know that music affects the mood in the body but what are some examples?   Entertainment is a way music influences mood because it lifts the mood before people going out and helps passing up time.  For example, people play music before going to a club or party because it gets them in the right mindset, also people play music while doing dishes, traveling, reading, or surfing the web because it passes up time.  Music is played in mornings when waking up in order to revive your mood and wake you up, getting you prepared for the day.  By the end of the day music is still being played in order to calm the body down before going to sleep.  Last, “Music distracts the mind from unpleasant thoughts which can easily fill the silence.”  This is why people turn to listening to music when frightened or depressed because it will get your mind off of thinking about that particular situation occurring in your life.

What about an emotional type of mood? Yes, music affects this to by providing emotional experiences (even while performing).  For example, people dealing with a death in the family or a friend turn to music for relief, and this is why music is such a big part of most funerals.  Some even think music has a parallel resemblance with the type of mood you are in.  For example, a college kid just failed his last biology test and is angry, so he gets in his car to go get food after the test and blasts some ACDC rock music.  ACDC music involves a lot of yelling and loud music and is very similar to an angry type of mood.  Overall, music is not going anywhere and is going to be on this world a lot longer; therefore everyone should find a way to incorporate music in their life, so that way music can change the moods of people day after day.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/03/seven-ways-music-influences-mood.php

http://www.essortment.com/music-affects-mood-62015.html

Music's affect on the immune system

Music has various effects on the body such as brain waves, memory, learning, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, body movement, and coordination.  Although, that is not all it affects because it also affects the immune system, but how many people truly would think that?  Music is able to raise immune markers in your system, which creates antibodies to fight the disease.  After a while, the body is able to recognize certain types of music (specifically classical music) as immune boosting and will continue to improve the immune system.  The immune system is in your body to fight off infectious diseases and keep a person healthy, therefore music helps contribute to a reduction in factors responsible for illness. 

To be more specific on how exactly music boosts the immune system, I will scientifically break down how it is done.  “They found that levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, decreased significantly in those listening to the dance music compared to the control group. After listening, the levels of the antibody immunoglobin A, the immune system's first line of defense, were heightened.”  Therefore, stress hormone levels that weaken the immune system are decreased when exposed to music.  It has not been proved yet that different types of music would have different results, but studies have shown that personal preference for a type of music could influence the stress reducing impact it has.  After seeing the huge impact music has on health in the human body wouldn't  it make sense to use it?

Since music has such an impact on the human body (immune system) it makes sense that the world should take this to their advantage and use it.  They can do this by playing music throughout the day in a hospital or any building that involves sick people and healing.  Music is played in most hospitals, but this usually takes place in lobbies or waiting areas.  Whereas, the music should be played in the room were the sick people are, unless of course the patient in the room doesn’t want music played.  Why do this?  “In a separate, unpublished, study they also found that playing music while a patient was under anesthetic during an operation also helped to lower the levels of harmful stress hormones.”  Overall, listening to music in hospitals shows benefits for patients and lead to shorter recovery time.  This is because music leads to psychological changes, leading to stress reduction and direct immune improvement.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2569640/Music-can-boost-your-immune-system.html

Music's affect muscle tension/body movement/coordination/motivation

Ever listen to music before/during an athletic event or listen to music while exercising?  If so, you were probably listening to that music because of the pleasure, not knowing that in reality music is able to improve body movement/coordination.  A test was conducted on this topic and a group of people had to perform a downward swing repeatedly.  When the music wasn’t playing for the first time the group of people performed the test and researchers found that the people’s swing varied in time due to the fact that each person’s swing was based on their own specific motion and repetition.  Whereas, when the music played the second time around, researchers observed that the group of people coordinated with the beat, instead of going at their own rate.  By coordinating with the beat the group of people had more control over their muscles, and it also enhanced their motivation. Music can also play an important role in restoring physical functioning in the rehabilitation of persons with movement disorders. 

Motivation is an essential factor that is a effect on the body due to music.  This is because in whatever you are doing, motivation in that activity will always increase if you are listening to music.  “Listening to upbeat music can be a great way to find some extra energy. Music can effectively eliminate exercise-induced fatigue and fatigue symptoms caused by monotonous work.”  This is why some people listen to music when doing their homework because the motivation to do the work increases.  People play music before an athletic event because it gives the athletes more motivation to perform and do well.    Music is played on commercials and in stores because it gives the customers more motivation to buy their items.  Therefore, choosing music that motivates you will make it easier to walk, run, dance, play, read, shop, or any other exercise that you perform.

Last, music is able to reduce muscle tension in the body.  The key reason for this is because of stress, due to the fact that stress and reduced muscle tension work together.  For example, if you are stressed out than more than likely your muscles are not going to be reduced in tension.  Whereas, if your stress is low than you will reduce the muscle tensions in the body.  The reason for this is that listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music.  Relaxation is the number one way to reduce stress, therefore if you are relaxed than you are going to reduce your stress, leading to reduced muscle tension.  Therefore, if a person is trying to reduce muscle tension the number one thing to do is listen to relaxing/calm music.

http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml

Music's affect on breathing/heart beat/blood pressure

Ever listen to music and everything around you goes away and it seems as if it is just you and the music?  It can be like that sometimes, because music is a powerful tool that has major effects on the body.  One of these effects includes breathing.  When listening to music, a normal reaction is for a person to dance and it has been like that since music was created.  Dancing is almost like a type of exercise due to the fact that it causes the body to move rapidly,  causing a person’s breathing to speed up.  Relaxing or calm music will do the opposite and allow the body’s breathing to slow down.  Therefore, when it comes down to how music effecting  breathing it has a effect, but it really depends on the music you are listening to and the person you are.

                                                                                                    

Blood pressure is another essential factor that music has on the human body.  “Dr. Shirley Thompson, an associated professor of epidemiology at the University of South Carolina School of Public Health, reports that excessive noise may raise blood pressure by as much as 10 percent.”  Now I know some people think that if music is raising the blood pressure, wouldn’t that be bad for the health of the Body?  No! This is because it’s only a minor change of blood pressure and not enough change to affect health.  By playing relaxing music throughout the day people with high blood pressure can train themselves to lower their blood pressure and keep it low.  When listening to music not only will it increase and decrease blood pressure, but it also does the same to heart rate.

Heart rate picks up on frequency and tempo according to pace.  For instance, if the pace is fast then the heart rate will pick up on it and do the same so now your heart rate is also fast.  If relaxing music is playing then your tempo will slow down and the heart rate copies it by slowing down.  By the heart rate slowing down will cause the body to reduce stress and calm the body down.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that the heart rate will go with the beat, but it will definitely change its beats per minute.  Because a heart rate can only go so fast or so slow, it sure wouldn’t kill itself.  Therefore, people should have no worry when they listen to music, this is because a heart rate increasing or decreasing is because it is natural and is going to happen!

http://hs.riverdale.k12.or.us/~dthompso/exhib_03/jasonc/Music's_Affects_on_the_Human_Body.html

Music's Affect on the Brain

Music is a powerful form of art used every day on earth, its performed in many languages, and most importantly it has a strong influence on the human body and mind.  When it comes to how music effects the brain, it basically is due to the fact that music equalizes brain waves by slowing the waves down.  This takes place on the right side of the brain because this is where the music lives and is developed in order for us to be able to hear it.  The brain, the most complex organ of the body, is able to act different to different types of music.  For example, music containing a fast rhythm and beat will cause the brain waves to move fast, resulting the body to be alert and energetic.  Music containing a slow rhythm and beat will cause the brain waves to move slowly, allowing a person to feel relaxed and peaceful.  Therefore, music brings everlasting benefits to your state of mind even when you are done listening.

Not only does music affect the brain waves in the brain, but it also plays a major role in memory.  Simply using music when learning will boost your ability to memorize the information.  “Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the brain to be more capable of processing information.”  People tend to sing out loud sentences or words they must remember due to the fact that it makes it easier to retain the information, rather than just reading it.  People recall information much better when music is played at the same speed as when they originally learned it.  Background music has nothing to do with memorizing information, but since it is involved in your studying environment it tends to stick with the information being learned.  For example, John is in his room studying for his next big Chemistry test and while doing so he plays “beat it” by Michael Jackson.  The next day while taking the test he finds that the information he had studied the night before is easier to remember if he starts to think or hum the song “beat it”.  This is because the music was part of his studying environment and stuck with the chemistry material he had learned, therefore music can enhance memory abilities.

Last, learning is also associated with how music affects the brain.  Did you know that Albert Einstein was given a violin by his parents, became good at playing the violin, and said himself the reason he became one of the smartest men who ever lived was because of the violin?  Einstein is not the only one who believes this, a lot of well-known people insist that music (learning to play an instrument) somehow was able to enhance their learning ability and make them a smart man.  Common household music or peaceful music decreases blood pressure, therefore relaxing the body, and increasing the ability to learn.  Listening to common/peaceful music before taking a test can improve their score.  Overall, the brain learns in rhythm/ beat and music contains both, therefore music allows the brain to learn easier.

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html