Negative Effects Of Music

Music affect human physical system in the body and his nervous system impact brain functions and activity directly. Sound waves, which are produced by music, can affect on pain feelings, the respiratory system, blood pressure, pulse rate, as well as the emotions and thoughts. Thereby speed and quality of thinking process can vary. (Dawn Kent, 2006) Below are some evidences about influence of music on brain.

What negative effects has background music? There were researches that proved negative effect of music on human brain activity. When people memorize verbal information, phonological loop (part of verbal system) is used to maintain and rehears the data. At the same time it is used for processing of sound information. That is why competition

From ancient time humanity thought that music can help them. Plato prescribed music to people, who are fearful and anxious; and Aristotle told that music restores health and normalcy to those who suffer from uncontrollable emotions. Also, they compared it to a medical treatment (Gallant, Holosko, 1997). In early report it was found that more than sixty present of students listen to music while studying (Cantril, Allport, 1935). It means that many people find background music useful for their own results. From biological perspective, music positively effects on a middle brain. This part of brain is responsible for attention maintenance skills, memory, motivation, and critical thinking skills (Snyder, 1997) It was proved that Mozart’s music can increase IQ test score almost on ten points. This means that music is a “warm-up exercise” for the areas of the brain that perform analysis and critical thinking –middle brain. Nevertheless, this effect was saved only for ten – fifteen minutes. Another proof of positive influence was made by Schuster and Vincent in 1980. They used music at the beginning and end of lesson to relax and calm the students. This led to significant gains in math and reading after one year of such practice (Schuster and Vincent ,

For example, melodies can be divided on major, minor and atonal key. Two last of them make the passage of time seem faster, and the music played in major key makes it seem slower (Kellaris and Kent, 1992). In the latest 80’s it was found by Kiger that low information load music is optimally arousing, it means that it should be slow, soft and repetitive. Opposite, according to Whitaker, music must not be repetitive, because in this case it can distract from the task given to person and interrupt critical thinking. He state that music should be complex, including many variations in rhythm, theme and tone (Whitaker, 1994). Also, on the assumption of research in Shri Lanka, it was known that rhythm of music need to be fast and fully match to the working environment. Additionally, in comparing vocal and instrumental music, the instrumental one is much better. (Alley and Greene, 2008). Thereby, perspectives about music characteristics are