Music plays a vital role in human cultural development and easily cuts across language barriers to bring understanding and unity among people. Music is a melodic and harmonious sound. Other than entertainment, music can influence physical, emotional, and mental health, hence improving the quality of life (Rahman et al., 2020). Mental health refers to the individual ability to perform daily chores without difficulty, while physical health refers to conditions of the body. Music is associated with humans’ well-being and general health, such as medicine for a broken heart, pain therapy, enhancing intelligence quotient, lowering stress levels, reducing depression, elevating moods, improving concentration and memory performance, and boosting immunity. Therefore, music has positive impacts on humans’ mental and physical health. These significant impacts occur through singing, playing instruments, and listening to music. Music connects with people’s souls, hence its therapeutic effects.
Music aids people to exercise better and boost motivation when action gets tough. Music boosts workout tolerance and increases physical performance during the challenging exercise session. Most people prefer to listen to top workout tracks to make the physical workout enjoyable. Enjoying physical activities diverts a person’s perception of exertion because music permits them to minimize the central and peripheral cues of discomfort. According to Beer and Birnbaum (2022), physiological and psychological reactions to music boost mental health and increase physical activity. Calories are burnt during physical exercises, thus maintaining body weight, preventing weight gain, reducing cholesterol in the blood, reducing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and fighting obesity. The upbeat mood induced by music influences the person’s intention for more exercise (Terry et al.,2020). In addition, the close relationship between movement and rhythm improves performance and skills acquisition. Therefore, loud and fast music played during an exercise session links the exercise to positive experiences and improved regularity, duration, and intensity, thus stimulating and maintaining physical exercise and causing improved weight and health results.
Music therapy has been recognized and used as a treatment tool for various mental health problems. Terry et al. (2020) stated that an individual’s intake of sedative drugs and anxiety level declined through listening to music. Psychologists have applied music therapy to assist people with mental conditions such as schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Music provides an escape route for processing experiences, pent-up emotions, energies, and self-expressions, thus relieving the tension and stress from the mind. However, there are factors to consider in therapeutic music, such as the lyrics and beats per minute, and it should be mainly composed of string ensembles (Gustavson et al., 2021). Therefore, if the right therapeutic music is used, patients with depression will gradually improve their health because the music has the power and the ability to activate the brain’s reward center, releasing dopamine. This hormone acts as a neurotransmitter that boosts motivation and pleasure. Music reduces the level of stress hormone known as cortisol. Playing an instrument and singing allow people to find emotional relief, enhance social skills, increase self-confidence, and improve cognitive functions.
Music can enhance mood. It is generally processed by the part of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is the part of the brain that controls emotions and moods. Often, people tend to listen to their favorite music to boost their energies, improve moods, uplift their spirits, feel happy, and resonate with emotions. A bad mood triggers the production of stress hormones, which can be detrimental to mental health. Listening to music counteracts stress hormones, thus promoting calmness and tranquility. Music boosts a sense of belonging and connection. Self-expression and sharing reduce stress, thus improving good moods. Despite the emotional and physical health benefits, music has its disadvantages. A study by (Beer & Birnbaum, 2022) indicates that people listening to violent songs felt more hostile and aggressive compared to non-violent songs. Music helps patients to communicate their feelings.
In conclusion, music can have diverse and profound impacts on mental and physical health. Music facilitates chances of social connections, reduces anxiety and pain, improves mood, and helps in the treatment of mental illnesses. It also helps improve the growth and development of the cognitive brain. It has become increasingly significant for psychologists, music therapists, and health practitioners to incorporate therapeutic music into mental health treatment plans. Music aids patients in recovering from physical and mental illness and can boost self-esteem. In addition, music should be incorporated into daily routine activities to promote harmonious balance and mental well-being. However, it is vital to identify and know the type of music most beneficial to us based on mood and personal preferences. Music transfers emotions very efficiently; hence, listening to music with negative emotions will psychologically affect a person negatively. Therefore, singing or listening to a song alters our emotions and moods.
Beer, L. E., & Birnbaum, J. C. (2022). Trauma-informed music therapy: Theory and practice. Taylor & Francis.
Gustavson, D. E., Coleman, P. L., Iversen, J. R., Maes, H. H., Gordon, R. L., & Lense, M. D. (2021). Mental health and music engagement: Review, framework, and guidelines for future studies. Translational Psychiatry, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-021-01483-8
Rahman, J. S., Gedeon, T., Caldwell, S., Jones, R., & Jin, Z. (2020). Towards effective music therapy for mental health care using machine learning tools: Human affective reasoning and music genres. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing Research, 11(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.2478/jaiscr-2021-0001
Terry, P. C., Karageorghis, C. I., Curran, M. L., Martin, O. V., & Parsons-Smith, R. L. (2020). Effects of music in exercise and sport: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 146(2), 91-117. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000216