Skyler Dobson and Shannon Herbert
Contributing Sociologists
Music is extremely powerful, in the sense that it can draw people together just as quickly as it can tear people apart. Music is able to evolve and differ tremendously between generations and artists, and there still seems to be something for everyone and anyone. Artists are able to create and spread their words of wisdom and love to entertain people, or to even send a message within the deepest lines in the lyrics. In today’s day and age, it is extremely easy to tell if an artist is creating music for attention and money, or if they have a genuine love for the artform, and they want to share their craft for the rest of the world to enjoy. Even if the music falls under the “depressing” category, it can still be enjoyed by many, and can help bring people together. “Uplifting” music obviously has better long term effects on the brains of adolescents, and it is still able to bring people together from all over the world.
In order to properly approach our interests concerning the topic of music, we first had to identify the problem or question at hand: How do certain genres of music impact people’s mood? With a question in mind, we were then able to discuss how we would approach discoveries we would make surrounding the topic of music relating to mood. We came to the conclusion that we would be able to construct a survey, and get the most information out of students if we structured our questions and statements about what kind of music people listened to, and how it makes them feel. Before surveying the public, we first had to know what we were getting ourselves into. After the information about different genres of music relating to mood and development was retained, we were able to construct a hypothesis, and surveys to collect data to either support or deny our agreed-upon hypothesis. We were thrilled to eventually get the results of our surveys back to either confirm or deny the predictions we had previously made about the music choice of the students of New Hope-Solebury High School, and how their mood was impacted by their choice of music.
Feeling confident about the background knowledge we both had about our choice of topic, we were finally able to experiment with the numerous amounts of students surrounding us at New Hope. With out carefully constructed questions, we were able to receive a number of differing answers, which supported our hypothesis in a way we weren't expecting. Our hypothesis stated that “If students listen to certain genres of music (uplifting, pop, rap, etc.), then students will be in a better mood.” The songs that would fall under the “depressing” category, mainly hip-hop and rap, were a popular answer among students. Even though students stated that songs that fall under that category boosted their mood, those songs do fall under the “depressing category”. Even though we received no responses that correlated with a negatively impacted mood or a bad experience and an uplifting genre of music, the amount of responses that gave “depressing” genres a positive response overwhelmed the responses that said “uplifting” genres helped express a positive mood and mindset.
In conclusion, with the help of the students of New Hope-Solebury, and numerous resources online, we were able to support our hypothesis and confirm our thoughts and assumptions about the music choice of our peers. Our research provided us with the different types of music that fell under the “depressing” category, and the uplifting category. Much to our dismay, most of the survey results showed that most of the population of our peers listen to music that is considered depressing. But, our hypothesis was never disproved because there were never any negative results reported back from people that listened to music that is considered to be “uplifting”. Our research and experimentation lead us to the conclusion that music is an extremely complex topic, and someone's music choice is able to completely alter a person's outlook on life, and it can even shift a person's mood completely and instantly, for the better or for the worse.
Prepared by
Connor Fitzgerald
