Music can move people to feel more happy, peaceful, joyful and gentle or it can move people to be more angry, irate or sad. Still, though, music and the way people view it is all a matter of perception. Knowing what causes such reactions through music and what kind of music provokes these responses will facilitate my learning of how to write to provoke emotions from listeners but not all.
#1 Happy Music
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Happy music can inspire, cheer up and motivate people. Listening to songs that bring good memories is a prime example of 'happy music,' as well as those that are lyrically joyous or encouraging.
Happy music is usually upbeat or of a fast tempo as our heart rate adjusts to the music that we hear and tries to match its tempo. The lyrics are positive either with joyous cheesy comments, motivational lines or something along those lines. Any instrument can be used to sound happy. But playing the instrument slow and mournfully will sound just that- mournful. A rhythm such as the heartbeat pulse can help make a song sound upbeat and lively. Often the key of a piece of music facilitates the mood of the music, but note that it doesn't always. In Western music, our traditional celebatory music are of major key opposed to our traditional mourning music written in minor key (for example, Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' or 'Happy Birthday' opposed to Chopin's 'Funeral March'). Whereas, the key of a song and the mood of the song can completely contrast one another even though usually a major key sounds more 'happy' opposed to a minor key.
The basis of what makes people think that major keys sound 'happy' are the use of major thirds. Major thirds sound bright and happy and hearing those on their own we get this impression, yet adding them with some other chords could produce a sad sounding song due to the tension and release of the chord sequence. To sum up, it is the relation of the notes to each other that provoke a mood, not the key. For example, the depressing lyrics in The Smiths – I Know It's Over change a major key song into a depressing one whilst the rhythm and instrumentation along with the lyrics of Van Morrison's 'Moondance' lead a minor key song to being an upbeat happy song that makes you want to dance.
Sources:
http://www.futureproducers.com/forums/production-techniques/theory-composing-sound-design/musical-keys-what-emotions-they-equal-34154/
http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/the-science-of-music-why-do-songs-in-a-minor-key-sound-sad
https://www.udemy.com/blog/songs-that-make-you-happy/
Image source:
http://stitchessapphiresandsweets.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/music-makes-me-happy-by-plastickheart.jpg
#2 Sad Music
Teenage girls in movies are often displayed as listening to sad music when they're sad with a bucket of ice cream. I myself am guilty of this sometimes and I wonder why. Why when we're already feeling down do we put on music that's sad? After a bit of research I didn't find out a lot about why or how. But what I did find was a little article and video by redorbit.com, where a women described how psychologists had found out that "beautiful but sad music can help cure a case of the blues[1]," by having participants of their study "recall a negative emotional event in their lives and what sad music they'd listened to following the event." In conclusion to their study they discovered that those that chose to listen to 'sad' music didn't make them feel better but rather the music that they listened to that they described as 'beautiful' music did. Therefore, to make yourself or someone else feel better we should write or find beautiful music rather than just sad. I also later found another case study which measured listener's responses to "extremely sad [2]" music that showed a correlation between the amount of dopamine released and the amount of goose bumps produced, which resulted in the writer concluding that "the more emotions a song provokes…the more we crave the song.[2]"
Sad music usually concerns songs that are lyrically relatable or, sometimes, thought-provoking. Some songs may be quite upbeat and happy but viewed as sad because of the memories that they bring forth. Others may be sad because they remind the listener of someone that has passed on or has treated them badly. There are also characteristics in sad music that makes them seem as such. The musical device appoggiatura is one.
A psychologist names John Slohoda conducted an experiment asking people to identify passages of songs that set off a physical reaction (e.g. tears/ goosebumps). 18 of the 20 passages that they identified contained an "appoggiatura." A musical device of which creates a dissonant sound, generating tension in listeners. Then, to create the goosebumps or chills, the note should return to the "anticipated melody[2]."
To make someone cry several appoggiaturas should occur next to each other in the melody. This results in a cycle of tension and release being generated which then results in an even stronger reaction compared to just one appoggiatura to be provoked.
A popular example of "ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas" being used is in "Someone Like You" by Adele, where Adele "slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution."
Furthermore, to write a chill-provoking song or part of a song add one of the following: begin a part softly and then suddenly become loud; add an abrupt new instrument or harmony; add an expansion of frequencies in the song; add unexpected deviations in the melody and/or the harmony. Basically, just add surprises in the song.
Source:
[1] http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/science_2/1113077236/music-for-the-blues-should-be-sad-and-beautiful-022114/[2] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203646004577213010291701378
Image Source:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq7RUEtB7Ic1Yu_yIvleSO75TtMyIWjis5E0WFmhR4RvUiFeQTZdqY2BAHBlIoFKL_EKnLUq6Dkp2hu-db7I7MvtO8c_OPkvTszhcRzuUP4WGsYQ7VGgKtCCZ5aMFxYX4wNnXiw245lfRc/s1600/sad_music_equals_happy_7460.jpg
#3 Relaxing Music
Many classical pieces by Baroque composers, all with largo movements, are considered soothing pieces. And music with white noise or ambient environmental noise is used often for sleep disorder treatments. Soft music is usually considered relaxing. Using effects such as delay and phase shifting is advised when writing electronic relaxation music as well as drones for any.
I find that many chill-out playlists and CDs as well as playlists entitled simply 'relaxation music' on YouTube are useful in helping me relax to such an extent that I do sometimes drift off to sleep. We can't forget about the usage of music for meditation. Music that is used predominately for just that to put our mind at ease.
Many of these relaxation pieces I myself have experienced are quiet, sparse yet full, repetitive, minimalistic, soft, slow in tempo, contain softly flowing textures and usually, but not always, contain no melodic material. In addition to these characteristics the motifs of such music consist of drumbeats and/ or timbre.
Sources:
Tao of Music: Sound Psychology book by John M. Ortizhttp://composersforum.ning.com/forum/topics/meditation-music
Image source:
http://www.enhancedhealing.com/imagesupload/cms_files/4.jpg
#4 Angry Music
The first thing I think of when I think of anger provoking music is political music. Music that creates feelings of anger through the lyrically content that displays injustice or wronging's. The other type of anger provoking music that comes to mind is that of which artists express their anger through their songs via their words or other musical devices like dynamics (a bunch of examples are listed on the page of [1]).
Music that expresses anger and is accused to persuade its fans of being angry individuals is that of heavy metal and rap music which I believe to influence people that way because the fans relate to the expression of anger in the lyrics and take influence from them in return as do the majority from any type of music that any of us listen to. In comparison, a study showed that kids that listened to heavy-metal music regardless of the lyrical content (even though the music was 'unintelligible) developed the same negative attitudes toward women and were angrier than kids that listened to easy-listening music [2], implying that tone, rather than lyrical content provokes anger. But this does not necessarily mean that heavy metal or metal music creates angry, disobedient or rebellious individuals. Rather, it suggests that it influences such reactions.
Music that causes irritation and fidgeting would probably provoke feelings of anger too. So placing lack of reasonances in music, musical jumps, jitteriness and changes of tempo into a song would perhaps provoke such a reaction.
Sources:
[1] http://www.upvenue.com/article/1357-top-10-songs-to-listen-to-when-you-re-angry.html[2] http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-listening-to-negative-lyrics-or-angry-music-really-harmfu_71171.bc
Image source:
http://universereview.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/angry-music-note.jpeg
#5 Scary Music
To summarize, to scare a listener add unexpected changes in the musical characteristics such as volume and tone, crashing notes or instrumentation, harsh sounds, abrupt shifts in pitch and screeching strings or low drones.
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1281385/Ever-wondered-music-horror-films-scares-The-harsh-sounds-tap-instinctive-fears.html
Suggested further reads:
http://www.livescience.com/25611-why-music-moves-us.html
