Music's Effect On Mood

[bobtheenchantedone]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/73891/

Marduk and I have discussed this several times, actually, because when he's upset he wants to listen to depressing/angry music and when I'm upset listening to depressing/angry music makes it much worse (and has on occasion facilitated a panic attack; however, that was when listening to music I would never normally listen to because even when happy it makes me anxious).

So it certainly depends on the person (and, to some extent, the music) as to whether it will help or hurt an unhappy mood.

[Digit]

Like manipulating an audience into thinking they're feeling something [throws "meaningful look"]

[Whistler]

I've read that really cheerful people can sometimes make depressed people more depressed. Here's one article that looked at a study that found listening to more popular music was correlated with depression in teens http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/05 ... epression/. One study found that a group of people with depressive symptoms improved more than the group attending psychotherapy (!). They listened to classical and baroque music (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 5610000857).

More on the topic of the original question, one study found that "qualitative aspects, i.e. reasons for listening (especially ‘reducing loneliness and aggression’, and ‘arousing or intensifying specific emotions’) were significantly related to physiological and psychological functioning (all p = 0.001). These direct effects were mediated by distress-augmenting emotion regulation and individual stress reactivity. " I'm not completely sure what that means, but it sounds like they found that depending on why you are listening to music, it can have different emotional effects (and "distress-augmenting" sounds singularly unpleasant http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... hwPbBu1Fxw).

For me, sometimes listening to sad music can help me wallow in that emotion and then be done with it? It also helps that a lot of sad parts of like, albums or sonatas, are often followed-up by a cheerful part. Or some longer songs themselves change from brooding to joyous, and that can help lift my mood.