Toscano 1

Ana Toscano

Professor Nelson

English 1302-104

1 December 2021

The Effects of Music on the Mood

How can music control a person's moods and what kind of moods can a person feel

because of music? In today's world music is made to prompt the listeners to feel certain types of

emotions. A person would listen to music at any point of the day either when they are alone or in

a crowded room. Listening to music helps a person relieve any or all emotions that they are

holding within to feel either happy or sad. A person's current mood can affect the quality of the

music being played. Several researchers have studied that listening to music can affect a person's

emotions. In one of the articles, it states “it has been shown that current mood states can

influence the perception of the affective quality of music in a mood-congruent manner”

(Cohrdes, 22). It means that a person's mood at that very moment can be changed depending on

the quality of music. In addition, in another article it states, “the major area of research is the

management of moods and emotions because moods and emotions are essential components of

everyday life that can have a significant influence on many aspects of psychological well-being

and cognitive functioning” (Campbell, 1133). Here they are talking about how music does affect

many things that a person does every single day. Furthermore, these researchers in these articles

talk about how a person’s mood and attitude can be affected through the use of different types of

music. In a person's life music can be used as something that can help make a person feel certain

emotions even if it's good or bad.

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According to the next few articles, many researchers can agree to say that music can

affect a person’s mood depending on the type of music being played. A person's mood can affect

what they do daily such as work, school, home, general tasks and among other things. Many

researchers like Caroline Cohrdes et al argue that listening to music does have an effect on a

person's mood when they are working (22). In addition, Elizabeth Campbell says that listening to

music does affect an individual's mood even though they may not know it yet while they are

working on general tasks (5). Music in a person's mood does affect the work that they may have

at hand at any given moment even if it's good or bad. This lets the person that may be affected by

the music to know what is going on with them during that time either if they are at work, school

and or together places that they listen to the music. In Annemieke J.M. Van den Tol and Jane

Edwards article they researched that older adults tend to listen to music depending on their

mood and the tasks they are doing at that moment and how they can get it done based on their

mood such as things like cleaning a room at home. A study that was done by Cohreds, et al,

showed that individuals had listened to certain sounds and certain types of songs, mainly happy

music in the backgrounds made to the person listening to the music to get small tasks done.

Cohreds, Wrsuz, Wald-Fuhrmann, and Riediger claimed that listening to happy music the

participants of this experiment were pleased. While others that were listening to sad music were

feeling down and some others felt aggravated (Cohreds, 26-28). Many people oftentimes pick the

music that they want to listen to so that they can feel what they want to feel.That in which sad

music can make a person feel too mad or say something while trying to complete their given task

in this experiment. Moreover, in Suvi Saarikallio’s article it showed us that playing happy music

gave a person a positive type of emotion such as joy, pleasure and calm. While playing sad songs

gave the listeners a negative emotion being aggressive, frustration and alone among other things
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(Saarikallio, 12). This just shows us what a person can feel depending on what is being played

for them in these types of experiments as well as tasks given.

The following authors explain what happens when it comes to a person selecting music

that they want to listen to, because the participant may prefer to listen to certain types of music

and with the mood not being something that matters. In addition, more studies show that music

shows us that no matter what the person's mood is, they tend to listen to music that they want to

listen to and not just by their mood (Garrido, 245). This statement is true since it was agreed

upon on the other sources that were used for this essay. Since for the most part people tend to

pick music that is not based on their current mood. When it comes to music giving us any type of

emotions it can really happen to anyone at any time without them knowing. Authors Tom F. M.

ter Bogt, Alessio Vieno and among other researchers have claimed that listening to music helps a

person to be comforted no matter what kind of music that it may be but it's mainly a reference to

sad songs (156). Unlike, in Sandra Garrido and Emery Schubert research article it also states that

sad songs just make a person feel sadder than what they were before (245). A person that is

always listening to music can have their mood constantly changing due to the types of music that

is being played at any time of the day. About 50 people out of 335 tested in this experiment said

that sad songs make them sad faster (Garrido and Schubert, 245). Authors Garrido and Schubert

state that during their experiment that they tested the results of the participants that did not listen

to music first versus the group that did listen to music (Garrido and Schubert, 251). Moreover,

authors Tom F. M. ter Bogt, Alessio Vieno, Suzan M. Doornwaard, Massimiliano Pastore and

Regina J. J. M. van den Eijnden all did a study with people of several different ages to test out if

they were to listen to sad songs and how much it does affect a person. The results from this

article are that music has been used as a means of comfort by the majority of youths (69.8%) and
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millennials (69.2%) (Bogt,163). Furthermore, both males (58.3%) and females (73.9%) all

responded with low results of 71.6% but with about 65.2% telling us that they do use music to

comfort them, while the others don't think so (Bogt ,162-164). In the end, when it comes to

selecting music the individual would rather listen to music no matter what kind it is no matter

what their mood may be.

Anyone's mood can change by the different types of music that they choose to listen to or

forced to listen to. In many studies it shows us that an individual's mood can change based on the

music at hand. In Caroline Cohrdes article she states that there are certain features of music that

can affect such as the tempo and mode of the music that can affect a person's mood (Cohrds, 24).

Emotional impact of listening to music can make a person dependent on many different emotions

that they may be experiencing (Campbell,1135). Furthermore, in Van de Tol and Edwards

article they state that music more particularly, it's possible some people would actively choose

music featuring strong aesthetic appeal to improve their emotions after such an unpleasant

encounter (Van De Tol and Edwards, 475). When it comes to playing music, people tend to pick

music that has a great beat so that it can give a positive mood to the person that may be listening

to it after something bad has happened. One among genre's main significant motivational

purposes for everyday life involves internal self, therefore musical hearing has already proved to

become an excellent tool for such a behavior (Saarika and Brattico, 28). Moreover, Garrido and

Schubert wanted to see how self-selected sad music by the participants can affect a mood using a

mood scale (Garrison and Schubert,259). Sarrika-Brattico and Garrido-Schubert both show us

how self-selected music does have both a positive and negative effect on a person's mood.

Just by reading about all these articles it shows us that music is quite the mood changer.

In the end, in this essay it talks about how music is made so that people's moods can change
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when they are listening to music. In this essay we also talk about the different types of music that

can lead a person to feel some type of mood. Due to the results and studies given to us from

researchers it shows us in what ways music has an influence on people of all ages in many ways.

It's an exceptionally significant topic since many individuals are unaware of the impact that

music has on an individual. The information from this research is important since the readers get

to learn that music can affect mood in many different ways. Also, the information from this

essay, it is important when it comes to learning that music can affect a person's cognitive

functions in their daily lives. In a person's lifetime they go through many emotions that are

coming from many things in life, but the main thing that does give them emotions always comes

from listening to music. It's important for people to know about how much music does affect one

person's mood at any point during their life. Since they will continue to choose to listen to music

either to boost it or to lower it depending on the situation as well as tasks at hand. When people

choose to listen to music more often than others may feel better since they are getting all types of

emotion out. In the end the researchers of all these papers used other research work and built it

on that a lot more in different ways to expand information for their experiments that show us

how different types of music does affect a person's mood. As a writer creating this essay, meas a

student researcher want the readers to know that music can affect a person. I also want them to

know that no matter the style of music it is, it can give a person a good or bad mood.
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Works Cited

Campbell, Elizabeth Ann, Elizaveta Berezina and C M Hew D Gill “The Effects of Music

Induction on Mood and Affect in an Asian Context.” Psychology of Music, vol. 49, no. 5,

Sept. 2021, pp. 1132–1144, doi:10.1177/0305735620928578.

Cohrdes, Caroline,Wrzus,Wald-Fuhrmann, Riediger “‘The Sound of Affect’: Age Differences

in Perceiving Valence and Arousal in Music and Their Relation to Music Characteristics

and Momentary Mood.” Musicae Scientiae, vol. 24, no. 1, Mar. 2020, pp. 21–43,

doi:10.1177/1029864918765613

Garrido, Sandra, and Emery Schubert. “Moody Melodies: Do They Cheer Us up? A Study of the

Effect of Sad Music on Mood.” Psychology of Music, vol. 43, no. 2, Mar. 2015, pp. 244–

261, doi:10.1177/0305735613501938.

Saarikallio, Suvi, Sirke Nieminen and Elvira Brattico. “Affective Reactions to Musical Stimuli

Reflect Emotional Use of Music in Everyday Life.” Musicae Scientiae, vol. 17, no. 1,

Mar. 2013, pp. 27–39, doi:10.1177/1029864912462381.

ter Bogt, Tom F. M.Alessio Vieno, Suzan M. Doornwaard, Massimiliano Pastore2 and Regina

J. J. M. van den Eijnden “‘You’re Not Alone’: Music as a Source of Consolation among

Adolescents and Young Adults.” Psychology of Music, vol. 45, no. 2, Mar. 2017, pp.

155–171, doi:10.1177/0305735616650029.

Van den Tol, Annemieke J. M., and Jane Edwards. “Listening to Sad Music in Adverse

Situations: How Music Selection Strategies Relate to Self-Regulatory Goals, Listening

Effects, and Mood Enhancement.” Psychology of Music, vol. 43, no. 4, July 2015, pp.

473–494, doi:10.1177/0305735613517410.