Music Affecting The Teen Brain

“ Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience. Music evokes emotion and emotion can bring with it memory. Music brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.” - Dr. Oliver Sacks. Many teens in today’s society use music as an escape, whether they are having a hard time at home or just life in general. Studies have shown that music helps teens with their emotions. There are two emotions that are associated with music, perceived emotions and feeling emotions. This means that sometimes we can understand the emotions of the piece of music, without actually feeling them. (Beth, 2013). Although many genres of music affect the teen brain it is said in research that happy/sad music affects how we see neutral

(Beth, 2013). There are so many studies on the teen brain, and how it functions with music today. In every study you look at they all come to the same conclusion that music affects all of the brain in many ways. We use music to exercise, we use it to study, we use it to relate. These reasons is why it not only affects part of the brain but all of the brain.

History of Music Music has been around for a long time. We have gone through the Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Baroque Age, The Classical Period, The Romantic Era, and now the Twentieth Century. In the Middle Ages music is just developing and it was only sung in churches by monks and they only sang one thing called Gregorian Chant which is a single melodic line and it is polyphonic it is also sacred music this also means that it was not at all total music. It didn’t have rhythm and it didn 't have melody. Gregorian Chant is music that is simple and doesn’t have much to it and is limited in the way that you sing it. Then we head into The Renaissance, this is when music started to have polyphony in it, and music started to break away from just the church setting

All genres affect the teen brain and different parts of the brain experience different things because of listening to music. Many studies have been made about music and it has been researched and today we know a lot about the topic which is why it is easy to find all of the research and all the studies. Music was developed to be enjoyable and to make us feel something when listening to it. It was developed to inspire people. We may be creative but did you know that listening to music helps you be creative? Research has shown that if you are listening to music at a moderate sound level that it can decrease difficulty and increase processing and can lead to creativity (Beth, 2013). Also that by the genre of music you listen to studies have shown that it can show part of your personality. To name a few Blues fans have high self esteem, are creative and outgoing, and also are gentle and at ease. Jazz fans have high self esteem, are creative and outgoing and are at ease. Country fans are hardworking and outgoing. Pop fans have high self esteem and are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not as creative and at ease (Beth, 2013). Now as you listen to these genres it is easy to see how these personalities match. Music plays a huge part in who you are and your personality. today’s society likes to get to know you by asking about your favorite music, so that shows that it helps