New Study Shows How Music Dictates Emotions

Throughout history there has always been a special connection between emotion and music. As music enthusiasts, most of us associate music to wide array of emotions. There are songs that make us feel happy, songs that evoke tears, songs that bring us euphoria, songs that induce a peaceful state of mind, songs that inspire and motivate us and songs that can sometimes induce a multitude of any of these feelings.

To that effect, music streaming service, Spotify, recently partnered with Jacob Jolij, a Professor in Cognitive Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Gronigen, in order to analyze the kind of music that would induce said emotions.

Their research yielded interesting results as it was found that a song’s key, tempo, rhythm and occasionally, the lyrics, play a role in triggering a particular emotional response.

The study lists 7 songs that exemplify the range of emotions:

1. Happiness – Katy Perry, Birthday

Happy songs are up-tempo, have strong rhythm, positive lyrics, and are typically in a major key. The up-tempo rhythm of Katy Perry’s Birthday is one such example that will encourage active movement and dopamine release, which is good for your mood.

Furthermore some research suggests that the major key unconsciously reminds you of a falling pitch – a feature which in both human and animal vocalisations asserts dominance and confidence.

2. Sadness – OneRepublic, I Need

Sad songs have the opposing features of happy songs: they are slower and in a minor key – with the lyrics generally more negative.

The minor key present in OneRepublic’s I Need unconsciously reminds the human mind of a rising pitch, which is associated with defeat and uncertainty.

3. Optimism – American Authors, Best Day of My Life

Optimism is what psychologists call a complex emotion – it is not ‘built in’ our system by nature, but it is an emotion we learn to experience over time.

Optimistic feelings require happiness, so optimistic songs will share many features with happy songs: major key, upbeat. However lyrics – such as those in American Authors’ Best Day of My Life – are more important here as they provide the additional context to build optimism rather than purely improving mood.

4. Anger – David Guetta, Bad

Anger is a basic emotion. It is negative, and as such associated with songs in a minor key. However, as opposed to sadness, anger is what we call an approach-emotion: it involves movement, a dimension anger shares with happiness.

Combine these two and you’ve got a recipe for songs that may help in channelling our angry feelings: up-tempo songs with a strong rhythm, in a minor key, such as David Guetta’s Bad.

5. Overcoming fear – Coldplay, Magic

Fear is a negative emotion, characterised by a stress response that prepares you for a ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction.

In the modern age, we often experience the same stress responses in situations where the ‘fight or flight’ response isn’t beneficial – such as an interview or presentation. In order to overcome fear, the very first thing you need to do is to minimise your stress response, followed by managing your internal thoughts. Music that can help you to overcome fear therefore needs to be slow, relaxing, but have major chords to evoke positive feelings, and lyrics that deal with your negative thoughts, such as Coldplay’s Magic.

6. Excitement – Avicii, Wake Me Up

The hormones present in the body when we are described as being ‘excited’ – such as adrenalin and endorphins – mean that excited people crave music that is positive, usually in a major key, yet more up-tempo and with a stronger beat than your typical ‘happy’ song.

And when you’re dancing with excitement to Avicii’s Wake Me Up, the lyrics in excited songs aren’t as important as they are to other moods such as anger or nostalgia.

7. Nostalgia – John Legend, All of Me

John Legend’s All of Me is an example of a song destined to be a nostalgic hit.

For many the sentimental lyrics will remind them of somebody special, improving the probability of linking the song to other senses – such as sights or smells – meaning the iconic 2014 hit All of Me is a reliable track to provoke nostalgia in listeners for years to come.

Study Source: Spotify

Though there are a wide array of external factors that can also dictate the effect a song has one’s emotional state, such as, the mood the listener is already in, any emotion already associated with the song by the listener, if the listener actually has heard of/ likes the artist or the song he or she is listening to. Given these factors, these 7 songs aren’t necessarily a steadfast example of the emotions they’ve been associated with in the study.

However, it is intriguing to know that there has been an initiative to draw a link between music and emotions, and we hope that further studies are conducted on the effect of music on the human mind.