Music is a very wonderful thing. It is a universal language that is part of everybody’s lives. People listen to music every single day, and they use it for various things such as performing with instruments or singing or even just listening to it while doing activities such as reading or studying. Places such as stores, sports stadiums, and restaurants also use music for the customers. Music is everywhere. A lot of people love to listen to music. On the contrary, there are some people who don’t really care to listen to that much music. They just don’t enjoy music as much as other people might enjoy. For those who don’t listen to music that much, it may sound kind of counterintuitive, but in a way, it is actually harmful not to listen to that much music.

Here is the thing. A lot of times when we listen to music such as classical, jazz, or even country to an extent, us as humans tend to get that feeling of feeling calm or relaxed, and that is totally normal. That is what must happen! As humans, we have a lot of stress hormones, and as college students, we have a lot of stresses happening such as classes, tests, food, finances, and other things. As a result, these stress hormones are constantly active. By listening to calming music, these stress hormones can actually be calmed simply by listening to calming music. Don’t use music like heavy metal because that can raise up stress hormones by a lot due to its aggressive and hyper nature. By calming the stress hormones, you actually lower blood pressure at the same time because blood correlates with stress. For those with high blood pressure, this is a really good tool to use to lower blood pressure. This is also a good way to avoid heart problems.

Music can also reduce and treat anxiety and depression. When people have anxiety and depression, there is usually a lot of stress built up in their lives that they have to get over. Again, we learned that music can help calm and reduce stress hormones. As a result, music can help people be calm and stop thinking lots of negative thoughts. Most of the music has to be calming or slower music. This is because you don’t want the music to be too uplifting or too aggressive or too fast. You also want that is easier to relate to. Music such as classical and country should be just fine for that.

In addition, music is known for helping people sleep. According to some studies, there were some students who listened to classical music for 45 minutes before they slept, and they reported sleeping really well and waking up way fewer times throughout the night than before. This is also correlated with reducing stress and anxiety. By using music to help sleep better, it can help our bodies rest better and actually regain healthiness overnight. Rest is very important for the body because it can actually help the body recharge itself and the mind so that way, we can be more productive throughout the day as well as actually being safer.  

As I said before, music can also help us be very productive. Many people like to listen to different music while doing their day to day things. Some either like classical, jazz, pop, heavy metal, and others. Coming from a musician myself, I personally like classical and jazz music. The reason why is that I find them really relatable for me because I really like the complex chord progressions and the harmony of the music, but at the same time, the instrumentation is really nice and the dynamics and the music overall sound really pleasant to the ear. Not everyone may like that. Some people might prefer the aggressive sound of heavy metal or simpler stuff like pop or country. 

Music can also help us with our mood and emotions. When we do every day things, we can feel certain kind of ways, mostly happy. This is because when we do the things we love, there is a chemical called dopamine that is released to the brian, and it brings pleasure. When we listen to music, it provides different kinds of levels of dopamine into the brain because of the different genres and moods or feel of the music. The faster and more aggressive the song, the more dopamine there will be, and if there are songs that are a little bit more on the slower side, then there will be less dopamine released. Either way, people will feel tons of different emotions from music. 

Now, there are a couple of big reasons why there are some people who don’t really listen to music all that much, and they do exist in the world. One is that one person might have something called “music anheodina.” It basically means that people don’t really get any drive or pleasure from music. That is a neurological disorder. The other thing is that when we are young, sometimes we are exposed to a certain kind of music often, or even multiple kinds of music, and sometimes, that will dictate what kind of music we are interested in. Sometimes, people might not even be exposed to a lot or even any music, and as a result, they just don’t feel like listening to music all that much like other people do.

Overall, people should definitely listen to more music. Not just because music is really cool and that it is fun and that you all will enjoy it, but also because music is actually really good for you. It can help lower blood pressure and decrease your anxiety and depression levels, and it can even help you sleep. Your moods and emotions will definitely be affected in a positive way by music, and you can even be productive with music. Music is a universal language, and it needs to be used often from every single person.