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The African American Community and Entertainment (Music)

7 February 2020

Dr. Xueying Zhang

Jordan Bizzell, Kiah Durham, & Stefon Smith

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As the world continues to become more and more advanced, individuals often find

themselves searching for ways to escape and regroup. One tool that seems to be effective across

the board is the integration of music into one’s daily routine. For many, music has the power to

influence and regulate emotion all while shifting one’s perspective and thought process. In so

many words, music is a stimulus that can result in both positive and negative reactions. The

following paragraphs take a closer look at music therapy as a means of emotion regulation.

In order to understand music therapy as it relates to emotion regulation, one has to define

what music and emotion are. According to Merriam Webster, music is the science of ordering

sounds and tones in such a way that a composition has unity and continuity. Emotion is a state of

feeling. The use of music as a means of connecting with and identifying emotions dates back to

ancient times. In Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy - Music Therapy (2006), the authors

discuss many of the strides made by psychologists and researchers to understand the

psychological effects that music has on humans, many of which did not emerge until the turn of

the 19th and 20th century. These first studies indicated changes in blood pressure, pulse, and

breath rate when organisms were exposed to sound stimuli. Shortly after World War I, the

standard procedures used when practicing music therapy were established during a program

developed in the US that studied its effectiveness as a psychotherapeutic method for psychiatric

patients (pg. 48).

Since then music therapy has split into two distinct directions, one that follows a

theoretical background and the other that takes a psychoanalytic and behavioral approach. The

psychoanalytic and behavioral approach follows the “American school” model. This model

observes the effects of different styles of music during application and views music therapy as a

supplement tool to psychotherapy. The theoretical direction follows the “Swedish school” model,
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meaning it treats music therapy as it relates to psychology and the emotions in a holistic way

(pg.48-49). While there are multiple definitions of music therapy from a number of pioneers and

professionals in the field, it is defined by Poland Natanson as “ one of the many planned

operations directed at rehumanization of contemporary life by multilateral use of different forms

of music for protecting and restoring human health and effecting a positive influence on the

environment.(pg.49)”

Music is important because of how it affects an individual’s mood and behaviors. African

Americans use music therapy to help go through their everyday struggles (Squinobal, Jason,

2018) alter their thinking, and trigger certain emotions when listening or singing a song. Certain

music is played in different situations, for example, an upbeat song is played when happy or a

slow song is played when someone is down. “ music held more influential power.” ( Carlsbad

2018)

A study by the name of Music’s Effect on Mood and Helping Behavior was conducted by

Jaden Ganser and Fareen Huda. In the abstract of the study, they mention the impact of uplifting

music and annoying music on the moods of their participants. They found that uplifting music

does have a positive impact on their participants' mood scores and annoying music has a negative

one. Their study consisted of 97 undergraduate students, 67 being females and 30 males.

According to the Ganser and Huda (2010),

Participants were assigned to one of the five conditions in which they completed

questionnaires in a room where all participants could clearly hear the music and lyrics.

The five conditions included music with prosocial lyrics, music with antisocial lyrics,

uplifting music, annoying music, and no music at all. (p.2).

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The results of this study showed that a change in mood occured when comparing the pre- study

and the post-study. The study supports that music has the ability to influence moods and attitudes

both positively and negatively. They also state that the lyrics of the song, whether it is prosocial

or antisocial, has an impact on moods and behaviors as well. Ganser and Huda had many theories

on what could be the reason for the change in attitude. The theory that stood out most in their

discussion states:

Due to the popularity of these songs, they are often heard on the radio and at social

events, which may make them associated with positive thoughts and feelings. In contrast,

the annoying condition involved music without lyrics that is not played on the radio for

enjoyment. (p. 3)

Another study was written by Myriam V. Thoma, Stefan Ryf, Changiz Mohiyeddini,

Ulrike Ehlert and Urs M, Emotion Regulation Through Listening to Music in Everyday

Situations. In their studies, Thoma (2011) found that “...specific emotion-regulation styles might

influence the selection of pieces of music characterized by specific emotions”. In this article,

they studied how people use music to feel a certain emotion. They discuss how music is a strong

trigger of intense emotions. The hypothesis explains that depending on the emotional situation,

certain songs would be used to regulate emotion. Emotional regulation is defined as a “...process

by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they

experience and express these emotions”.

Furthermore, they used music with the intention of evoking emotional response and they

collected emotional situations. They then brought together 47 volunteers, 28 being females and

19 males. The volunteers came together and were asked to write down songs that encouraged
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certain emotions and everyday situations that helped contribute to certain emotions. The authors

then chose 40 musical stimuli and 20 emotional situations.

The results can be described in two conclusions. The first being that depending on the

situation certain songs were preferred . This means that everyone has a different choice when it

comes to the music they use to relax. For example, this means some people may listen to upbeat

music when in sadder situations. According to Thoma (2011), “...two dimensions (valence and

arousal) seemed to be sufficient to explain music selection in emotional situations” (Thoma, Ryf,

Mohiyeddini, Ehlert, & M).

According to this study by Thoma (2011) we can say that the theory of giving people

upbeat music when feeling down or discouraged or giving people a more melancholy song to

trigger an emotional sencor. Music has a way to trigger one’s emotions no matter what type of

genre of music it may be.

In conclusion, music therapy is a great therapeutic way to help one trigger certain

emotions. This theory can also go even further by experimenting with college students at a

HBCU by giving them songs from different genres to trigger emotions. This study can be

documented and recorded by giving them a particular song and examining their attitudes or

behavior changes throughout the day.

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Work Cited

Dobrzyńska, Ewelina & Cesarz, Helelna & Rymaszewska, Joanna & Kiejna, Andrzej. (2006).

“Music Therapy - History, definitions and application. Archives of Psychiatry and

Psychotherapy.” 8. 47-52.

Ganser, Jaden, and Fareen Huda. “The Effect of Mood on Helping Behavior.” Journal of

Undergraduate Reasearch.

Kritz, Katlyn. “Music’s Influence on Culture.” Proquest Central , Feb. 2018,

search.proquest.com/central/docview/2113705721/144C23D7CF3D49DEPQ/5?

accountid=12711.

Squinobal, Jason. “An Investigation of the Life, Influences, and Music of Randy Weston.”

Proquest Central , 2018,

search.proquest.com/central/docview/2139158989/F7CCFC82DDCF4C60PQ/16?

accountid=12711.

Thoma, Myriam V, et al. “Emotion Regulation through Listening to Music in Everyday

Situations.” Taylor & Francis, Taylor and Francis Group, 9 Sept. 2011,