By: Noelle Di Perna 

Photo By Blocks, CC BY 1.0 on UnSplash

A woman arises from her slumber, gets ready for the day, and drives to the job she dreads all while simultaneously listening to music. Rather than her inescapable and sad reality tainting her every move, the vibrant music offers her a retreat from the blaring sounds that rarely keep quiet. The music fills her car with a breath of fresh air that she would have never been able to replicate on her own accord. From sitting in the car to walking through the school hallways or even writing this very article; music is the universal medicine. No matter the situations and emotions we are experiencing, music stands by us through thick and thin and serves as our most reliable friend. But how can something so seemingly far away from us touch the very depths of the feelings we never even knew existed. 

At its core, music is simply a series of sound waves that are perfectly put together to form the satisfying sounds we all know and love. The emotional attachment to certain music usually comes from life experiences we connect the sounds to. But, on a scientific level, according to Inside Science, this occurs because music activates a population of brain cells called mirror neurons (“Why Does Music Make Us Emotional”).  Mirror neurons reproduce the feelings we experience while listening to music and trigger the same emotions in us by activating the limbic system (the portion of the brain that deals with emotions). Inside Science also suggests that the frequency of musical sound waves cause the neurons to fire at specific rates that match the auditory stimulation, causing our neurons to be ‘on beat’ with the music (“Why Does Music Make Us Emotional”). 

However, despite differing theories regarding how our brain processes music, the end result is always a release of dopamine, which is better known as the happy chemical. Because listening to music results in the release of dopamine, our body will naturally want to continuously repeat this behaviour to experience the same dopamine rush again. In its simplest essence, on a scientific level, music makes us happy and leaves yearning for more; hence the belief that music is the universal medicine. 

Works Cited 

“Why Does Music Make Us Emotional?” Why Does Music Make Us Emotional? | Inside 

Science, https://www.insidescience.org/video/why-does-music-make-us-emotional.