| Music: The Food of Love and Hate |
| How many times have you been having a bad day when your favorite song comes on the radio and improves your mood? Are all effects of music this helpful and subtle, or are some dangerous or downright deadly? "People tend to become what they hear, see, and think about," according to Tempe psychologist Susan Olson. Not only this, but music can also have positive and negative effects on behavior, intelligence, and health. The idea that music affects behavior is not new; however, the effects have become more devastating. Aristotle believed that certain kinds of music created certain attitudes and behaviors including sorrow, calmness, enthusiasm, nobility, and vulgarity. Plato expanded this effect and stated that music could change entire societies. There is a trend in popular music to become darker and more violent. Is it any surprise, then, that the juvenile violent crime rate almost tripled between 1965 and 1990? It shouldn't be. Quite simply, "Music can create violence," according to Tempe psychologist Irvin Perline. But not only psychologists are convinced, but also gang members, such as 18-year-old Chris Johnson of Chandler who says, "Sure gangsta rap makes people act violent-and that's cool with me". With these kinds of attitudes, can we really be shocked to find that teen crime rates for murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, and robbery are soaring? While many factors affect crime and we do have some control over how much we listen to the lyrics in our music, evidence shows that the lyrics aren't entirely to blame for these violent behaviors. In 1996, David Merrel, a 15-year-old Nansemond River High School student, performed an experiment on mice to find the negative effects that hard rock has on intelligence. However, he made one major mistake: Keeping all the hard rock mice in the same cage. "All the hard rock mice killed each other," said David. The only conclusion that we can reach is that music affects behavior, most importantly when the message is negative. The old, and often joking, speculation that classical music makes you more intelligent has actually been proven. In Spring of 1998, an elementary school in suburban Denver played Mozart while students took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and scores rose 4 to 8 percentage points. However, many scientists still doubt the so-called "Mozart effect". They suggest that people who listen to Mozart are generally smarter anyway, and this study is merely correlative. However, several experiments, such as that of Frances Rauscher, a cellist turned scientist, show otherwise. She performed a classic "rat and maze" experiment. She divided rats into three groups. One listened to Mozart; another, white noise; and another, minimalist composer Philip Glass. Within 3 days, the difference was evident. The Mozart group ran the maze which she had devised in 35 seconds; white noise, 44 seconds; and Philip Glass, 50 seconds. In 1997, David Merrel (mentioned above) retried his experiment and ended with results like those of Rausher. Before beginning his experiment, he had each mouse run through his maze and established a base time of 10 minutes. After three weeks, the control group, which listened to white noise, cut their time by 5 minutes. The Mozart group ran the maze 8 1/2 minutes faster. However, the hard rock group took 20 minutes longer than originally, and, in fact, seemed disoriented. Why does music have such an impact? Rauscher believes that Mozart (and similar music) rearranges the neurons in the Montcastle cluster, allowing for better reasoning ability. Observation shows that some types of music, such as hard rock, either slows this process, or alters it to form different connections, resulting in a negative impact on reason. (Remember David Merrel's 1996 attempt?) These experiments prove the effect that music can have on intelligence and reasoning. Music therapy has revolutionized medicine and provided comfort to many. "Simply put, music can heal people," says Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. Music therapy has been successful in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and as a substitute for anesthetic. Louise Lynch, a music therapist that works with Alzheimer's patients says, "Music is often the only thing that older demented adults will respond to". The reason is revealed by music therapist Anne Lipe who has discovered that people with dementia lose their verbal skills first, and music and rhythm are two of the last sections to deteriorate. We also see amazing results in Parkinson's patients. As neurologist Oliver Sacks says in "Awakenings", "I've seen patients who couldn't take a single step but could dance, and patients who could not utter a single syllable but could sing". Michael Thaut performed a rhythm therapy experiment on Parkinson's patients' ability to walk. He measured the walking speed of 10 patients and recorded a drumbeat on a tape at that speed. Then, each week he gave the patients a slightly faster beat to walk to. Nine out of the 10 improved their walking speed, some as much as 50 percent. These are incredible advances, but one of the most surprising is the use of "audio anesthesia." Audio anesthesia was first used after World War II by dentists to relax patients and relieve the pain experienced during oral surgery. "There were hundreds of reports where dentists could lower the dose of nitrous oxide. Sometimes with music they needed none at all," says Bryan Hunter, president of the National Association of Music Therapists. The unique thing about music therapy, in comparison to the effects of music on intelligence and behavior, is that the same music does not always have similar effects upon music therapy patients. Generally, the best music is that which taps into the cultural or religious backgrounds of the patient. While music therapy is not a replacement for conventional medicine, it is an effective addition to new methods in therapy. Music has positive and negative effects on behavior, intelligence, and health. "Rhythm is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migrations of the birds and animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation and death of ourselves," says Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. Not only is rhythm and music in our lives, but it also affects our lives. Now the only question is how will we use it? |
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