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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
So I started thinking: Isn't music supposed to have healing qualities? I've read about psychology studies that show chemical responses to music, and there are even therapies that are based on music to help people's moods. I don't really know much about the validity of any of that, but I'm willing to believe that depressing music can bring you down, and happy music can be uplifting. I want to experiment. I want to have moments when I listen to music and all I listen to is upbeat and happy. I want to see if it influences my mood and motivation. How will listening to happy music affect my day? How will it affect my evening as I transition from work to personal time? How will it affect my mood going to bed?
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The studies say almost the exact opposite. If you are melancholy then listening to "depressing" music will actually lift your spirits and "happy" music will make you more depressed (or at least irritate you). However, if all you listen to is depressing music then it is unlikely that you will "move on" from your melancholic state. Clinical depression is completely different than melancholy; I don't think any kind of music will do much for someone who is clinically depressed aside from a little distraction. But a distraction can certainly be a good thing.
Music can and will affect your mood if you let it. The key is: "if you let it." Some people are not affected by music at all.
In my own experience I am deeply affected by music. I don't look to music to make me happy or sad, I look for inspiration. I usually find inspiration in moody, haunting, expansive pieces (Basso Profundo from Old Russia, Sigur Ros, later Dead Can Dance, Peter Gabriel Soundtracks). These are far from "happy." I can be moved to tears by music and still call it happy though.
I really don't know that I can define happy with regard to music. Some gospel is uplifting (spiritual connotation aside). Old R&B. Rockabilly. Swing. Some Jazz. Certain classical pieces (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, not so much the contemporary stuff). Some soundtracks are "uplifting" but probably not "happy."
It's a big question.
Sorry I don't have a list for you.