Response to Blog - Likes and Dislikes

This is a response to Sarah Dion's question, Where do our likes and dislikes of music come from?

Ok, to tell the truth I don't whether I should answer this from a psychological point of view or a social one. I will say that I do know why I don't like or like certain kinds of music. For starters, it lays with the values and morals I have for myself and the respect I have for others. I know that I would definitely dislike music that have curses in it or strong sexual content because of my morals and values. I know that I can't listen to rap nor watch it because it is degrading to women and have strong sexual phrases as well as curses; This goes against what I believe in. I believe what you listen to is a kind of reflection of a person. It isn't something that SHOULD be used to judge someone, although it is, but it CAN be a factor as to how people view you, before truly knowing you.

Given the scenario of two people going out for an interview at a highly prestigious university. If the interviewer decided that the only way to judge whether the two prospective people are going to be good professors was to look through their mp3 player/ ipod (this is just an example), and see what music they listen to and base their credentials on that, who do you think would get the job if, one ipod was filled with rap and cursing and sexually explicit music and the other device had classical music such as Mozart and Beethoven? Wouldn't the interviewer think that the person with classical music had better standards or morals than the person with the rap?

Again, that was just a fake scenario I made up. However, I do believe that we like music that is close to our ideals, our beliefs and what we agree/ disagree with in life. I also think that there is a cultural aspect. If I wasn't raised in a west Indian environment I don't think I would like the genres of reggae and Soca as much as I do. There are cognitive reasons as to why we may dislike or like music, but I like the social reason better than thinking about neurons not firring the right way.

So my question that I am going to pose is : Is it right for people to assume that they know a person by the music they listen to?

Music and Moods

As I was reading chapter 6, I came across an interesting quote made by Levitin. On page 191, he says, "Music is clearly a means for improving people's mood. " He concluded that listening to music triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine which is the brains pleasure and reward system.

When I look at this quote it makes me think about music and emotions and how it really does have a grand effect on peoples' mood. Remember when we were babies ,well of course we don't , but if you were ever in the room with a crying baby what did the mother do to the baby to sooth it? She sang to it! After a few minutes of a soothing melody, the baby stopped crying and drifted off to sleep.

I know many people that when they are angry, they listen to music to regain their composure. I know when I am angry or depressed I turn to music to soothe me. I never knew that music played such an important part of life, until I read this quote. Music guides how we feel, it calms us down, it helps us relax and it is a healthy "drug" that takes us away from the real world for a while and helps us go to our happy place. Music isn't just for mere entertainment, it holds something deeper and more significant. I do wonder though, can music initiate an emotion that does the opposite of helping us expiate what we are feeling. In simpler terms.....we established that music can be used to calm angry people down and help soothe people who are depressed, but can music make a depressed person sink deeper into despair? Can music make a happy period in life turn gloomy?