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By Madina Brammer
By Madina Brammer
I think many people would agree that all types of music do indeed influence the mood that we are in.I also believe that once our mood or feelings have been altered in a positive or negative sense that our behavior will modify itself according to this new mood we are in. The only problem with this suggested theory is that many people don’t realize how significant these affects can be. For example, if I have a final exam that I am preparing to take within one hour it probably wouldn’t be my best bet to listen to any music that contains lyrics or distracting beats that are going to stay in my head. Since music captivates and maintains attention it is able to tap into our memories and control our thoughts. Now with that said, it is easy to see how music can distract us from focusing and concentrating onto what is important such as a final exam.I asked many students here at Riverside Community College what their opinions are in regards to music affecting their mood. Each student had something relatively different to say, but one thing they all shared in common is that they said music can uplift your mood or it can bring it down. I think this is pretty much common sense that we can all agree upon.However, music is doing more than just bringing us up or down. It is actually causing some people to make drastic life altering decisions. When I say drastic life altering decisions, I think many of you know what I mean by that. However, my personal belief is that many people are unconsciously trapped into the lyrics of some of these songs that they don’t even notice that their minds are being shaped into the minds of these artists. Now it this isn’t a problem and you don’t mind sharing the same beliefs, values or feelings that this artist is expressing then by all means more power to you. Personally, I don’t want someone else’s emotional baggage projected onto me and altering my good mood or even making my bad mood worse.Now I do want to point out that not all music affects us from a negative standpoint. There are many styles of music beginning with classical and leading up to rap that can put us in highly motivated and positive moods. There are just times when certain types of music are not always in our best interest to listen to at a particular moment in our life. What I mean by this is, if I am having an extremely horrible day and I feel like the world is my biggest enemy I am not going to listen to a song that validates this feeling and adds onto my frustration and anger because it may cause me to have a biased, unfair perception of my reality. This is not to say that everyone has the same reaction to music and may become influenced by it.However, we have witnessed from the media that certain music can lead to dangerous behavior and actions by people who are not able to control their thoughts and become powerless to them.I believe that everyone should make it a conscious decision to be aware of how the music they’re listening to is affecting their mood.
