Based on definition, music is an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color while loneliness is a feeling of sadness which occurs when a person’s social relationships are perceived to be less.
Loneliness is a feeling I am familiar with as it visits me like an old acquaintance every now and then. During these lonely times, music is usually my only companion where I find comfort in solitude. It brings me back to my senses.
There are times when my emotions are stronger than I can comprehend. I feel like only music can express and understand my feelings through other artists’ lyrics, beat and rhythm.
It feels like it’s the only thing that I have in that certain time. It understands what I am going through and it gives me that feeling that it can listens to my sentiments and problems.
My comfort music, if I may say, is Church or Gospel music. Nothing can do a better job in reducing my loneliness and anxiety than the songs like, “Still” and “Ocean” by my favorite group, Hillsong Worship.
The songs I have mentioned have different effects in my mood depending on what I feel like listening to. The first two songs calm my soul and basically reduce my loneliness and the latter songs empathize and sometimes increase the feeling of sadness.
I consider music as my bestfriend because it never fails to make my heart happy. It sympathizes with me whenever I am down, but at the same time, it rejoices with me whenever I am delighted.
How does music affect loneliness?
Music affects loneliness in different ways or another, depending on what type of music you listen to. It can help either to relieve the loneliness if you like to listen to upbeat and inspiring songs, or can further bring you to a worse state if you like to listen to lonesome music.
Different people have different preferences in which type of music to listen to during times of loneliness. Other people battle less positive emotions by preferring Happy tunes which mostly have fast tempos and major keys.
On the other hand, other people embrace bleak sentiments while listening to sad core, characterized by downbeat melodies and slower tempos, or alternatively, songs with seemingly upbeat melodies that have depressive lyrics.
Either way, the music helps in channeling desired mood or emotion by the listener.
Personally, I choose to listen to both happy and sad tunes. When I feel lonely, I first embrace it as it is normal to feel this way sometimes by listening to my “sentimental” playlist on Spotify.
I do not unnecessarily dwell into that phase long to avoid harboring more negative mood. After that, I slowly transition the music to “happier” songs to boost my mood, eventually feeling a bit better.
Does listening to music make you feel less lonely?
According to a study done by Schafer, Saarikallio and Eerola in 2020 (journals.sagepub.com ) entitled, “Music May Reduce Loneliness and Act as Social Surrogate for a Friend: Evidence from an Experimental
Listening Study”, it states that listening to music, whether distracting or comforting, does effectively reduce the feeling of loneliness and improve a person’s mood. Music has a connection to the listener that makes him or her feel less alone and understood.
It does not invalidate any feelings that the person is experiencing whatever may have been the cause of his or her loneliness. In reality, even though you have friends and family that you may count on, they would not be there immediately to take over the sadness which also sometimes comes out of the blue.
As an alternative, you can simply plug in your earphone and tap your screen to pick a song you want to listen to. In an instant, you have a companion in music.
Music is like your intangible friend you can always count on whenever you need. It is your soulmate that can always relate to through your ups and downs, happiness and loneliness. Just like the song in itself, “You got a friend in me”, says music.
Can music help regulate emotions?
By definition, to regulate means to control or maintain the rate or speed of (a machine or process) so that it operates properly. Music can regulate and improve mood according to a study by North, Hargreaves, & O’Neill in 2000.
It can act as a stimulant reminiscing emotional memories, enhancing the feeling of being alone or can also provide comfort and relaxation. Music allows to balance moods in order to avoid excessive emotions, because too much of anything isn’t always a good thing.
Additionally, feeling overly emotional can be exhausting and unpleasant, either positive or negative emotions. Since music can guide your mood, it may also affect the human brain emotionally. On the positive note, this same idea helps set up mood in various situations and settings.
For example, upbeat music in a bar can demand the crowd to feel ecstatic and calming music that’s playing in the spa background helps relax the mind and body creating a holistic experience.
However it’s not always positive as music also has potential unsupportive effects on emotional health per Sakka, Juslin’s study in 2018.
This can be relevant to people suffering from depression which is characterized by a disorder of negative affect and impaired emotion-regulation skills, hence may have a hard time using music to be effective in regulating emotions.
Is listening to music a good coping mechanism?
Coping mechanisms are those that helps us manage situations that causes worry and worry to certain individual. Based on various studies I’ve read and stated above, music can be an effective and good coping mechanism for people of different ages, young or old.
Although there are other coping mechanisms, music is the most popular and universal method which is used by many to deal with their everyday stresses. Music, as a coping mechanism, especially this pandemic, is very useful.
Music provides the consolation a person needs wherever he or she may be at that time. Music helps me fight the boredom whenever I am home alone and just lying inside my room. Even pre-pandemic, music has been very helpful to me.
An example situation we can very much relate to is the stress of commuting to go to work and school. Hours of hassle traveling from home to work to fight the hustle and bustle of the city is quite upsetting.
During these long hours of staring at the traffic or waiting in a seemingly endless queue on the train station, my essential item that I never leave the house with is my earphones so I can listen to music. Listening to music makes the stressful commute a tad bit bearable and helps time to pass by faster.
Why do we feel emotions when listening to music?
Psychology today tells us that music, nowadays, tend to mimic our emotions. The patters of the music and its tempo usually mirror our emotional lives.
For example, a slow tempo naturally conveys sadness, because it has a structural resemblance with the slowness that we might expect in a sad individual, while a fast and loud music naturally conveys that a person is happy.
Generally this also has a connection to our physical body that would then trigger our emotions. A lot of people say music is a language that is universal. This allows people from all over the world connect and relate with each other.
When people have a hard time expressing themselves, they usually use different types of music to let other people know. And in a way, people somehow understand each other even without the exact words spoken.
The reason why music exists is that artists intend to share their feelings and sentiments with other people through their songs. They write and make music based on their experiences, which other people likewise experience.
People run to music every time because music nowadays are based on real-life situations and experiences, that is why listening to music feels like someone understands us and everything that we’re going through since we both share the same thoughts.
Conclusion
In the many benefits of music, I can say that it can be an effective tool or method for people to cope, battle or somehow appease loneliness. Music is a universal language almost all people can understand because of a human thing we can relate to and that is emotion.
Music is just a click away from us, since it is easily accessed through our gadgets. Listening to music is free. Hence, we can enjoy listening to it unlimited. It serves as our constant companion which we all can turn to when we are feeling down.
Overall, I will personally continue to utilize and enjoy music for my own advantage. I, myself, have experienced first-hand the usefulness of music from my day-to-day life. As a toxic individual, it helps me focus more whenever I study tons of reading.
Music not only jives with my feelings, but it also gives me focus. The music soothes perfectly my mind, making it peaceful and stress-free. I also use music to connect bridges with my friends and loved ones.
I tend to express my love and emotions toward them through different music which they listen as well. I think it is an effective way of telling them how much I value them because whenever they hear this music, it would remind them of me.