Getting High on Music
Image Courtesy: Strike Magazine Tallahassee
You get home after a stressful morning. You woke up hungover after a vomit-inducing night out on the town, failed your bio test, and pissed off your roommate all before 2 P.M. As you enter your shitty apartment, you shut the door to your room and seek to escape into a tranquil world of ease and simplicity. One by one, you put in your AirPods and enter this sweet fantasy, opening Spotify and turning on your favorite song. Just like that, everything seems so much better. That’s the power of music.
No matter what emotions we are feeling, there’s a song to tell us that we’re not alone. Music is a language of human emotion, weaving tales of sorrow, joy, panic, and heartbreak that we can’t seem to find the words for. Why is music so powerful beyond its retelling of the human experience?
For one, music has similar effects to opiates. Listening to a song you love (and anticipating your favorite part coming up) releases dopamine in your brain, the reward neuron that we get from things like alcohol, exercise, and the smell of freshly baked cookies. Music also activates mirror neurons, which are brain cells that respond to seeing or hearing someone else doing something as if we were experiencing it ourselves. In this way, music really is a shared language all human beings understand: as we listen to music, we empathize with the lyrics and rhythm and commiserate with the pain or happiness the artist is expressing through sound. The memories associated with songs take us back to a time when we were empathizing even more with what the artist was going through, creating feelings of nostalgia or remorse.
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The beat of the music we listen to also plays a role in how it makes us feel. A fast, upbeat song has a rhythm that increases our heart rate and can energize us for the day. A sad, slow song can have the opposite effect and calm or cast a dark shadow over us. Music therapy is a new branch of therapy that uses these principles to improve the mental well-being of people suffering from PTSD, depression, anxiety, and more. Music truly is more powerful than we give it credit for, and it has impacts that run deeper than just making us feel a certain way.
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Music has been around nearly since humans have existed, and it is easy to understand why. It can remind us of better times, somber us during high highs, and bring us back up out of a pit during lows. It can make us more productive or more energetic, force us to get out on the dance floor, or bring us together with friends to watch music videos on the living room TV. Music is the language of emotions, overcoming challenges, and humanity.
Strike Out,
Writer: Lydia Coddington
Editor: Addy Crosby
Graphic Designer: Maria Gonzalez
Tallahassee