Hello everyone who had over 30,000 minutes of listening on Spotify Wrapped this year. You are special. You must love music. Or maybe it’s more than that?
Research suggests that the way we experience music can actually tell us a lot about who we are. Let’s explore that.
If music Can give you goosebumps
It turns out that music can access the same reward areas in the brain as food, drugs, and love can. Basically, music accesses those dopamine pathways that we are all much more familiar with since the rise of social media, ADHD awareness, and “dopamine menus.”
But what does that actually mean for us? Well it is not the same for everyone. Not everyone has the same experience to music. Some do not experience “the reward.” I assume those who do receive the reward listen to a lot more music on average — it’s an easy source of joy!
Around half of people experience physical sensations like goosebumps when they listen to music. This comes down to the physical connections in our brains from auditory processing to emotional processing: those with more neurological connections will feel music more.
If music Can make you feel better
Similar to goosebumps, if music increases your mood (or lowers it) you are most likely fall into the group of people with strong connections between emotional and auditory processing. While many personality traits correlate to this anatomical phenomenon, none have been directly attributed to it. However, if you feel a strong connection to music, you may be:
- open-minded
- innovative
- curious
If you like a variety of music
If you can’t seem to pin down your listening, you may be an agreeable person. This appears to be true across the world, and no matter the genres you enjoy. Simply variety in listening means you may be easy to get along with!
If you are a bit of a golden retriever, to use internet speak, you are probably drawn to folk and country. If you are open-minded, you are more likely to enjoy classical music. This is super interesting considering the archetype of a typical classical music listener is an elderly, stubborn intellect. In reality, these listeners may carry above average openness.
If Music Can Calm You
You may be familiar with listening to frequencies. I have noticed this as a big trend online. “Listen to brown noise to sleep.” “If you have anxiety, try listening to this.” “People with ADHD will feel instantly calmer hearing this sound.” What’s all this about?
It appears that this is all based on a theory that certain frequencies can “synchronize” brain waves and thus calm the mind. Now, I would say take this theory with a grain of salt and try it out for yourself. We all intuitively understand “calming music,” and frequency therapies may be just that.
In Conclusion
Our enjoyment of music can correspond directly the makeup of our brains! Maybe this was obvious to you already, but it is wild to know that our love of Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan, or Vivaldi is tied to neurons, personality traits, and our identities as a whole! And this is not just in theory, but anatomically true too!