Stereo-moods that mirror

Music is all around everyone everyday and night. It is an inescapable part of our culture. In the car people listen to the radio, cds or their iPods. In almost every shop and restaurant music surrounds us. For most people music plays from their mobiles or even when people are exercising they are found engaged or attached to their iPods.  In clubs, bars, music is a vital key to the perfect atmosphere. For me it can enhance or shift any mood i am in or want to be in or find myself in and for others it can be the cause of their moods or trigger a specific moods. Stereo-moods are and have been a common factor in determining what we like within music and they are what we feel or  begin to feel when specific music is played.  But why does it happen? Research has shown and proven through music therapy experiments that music has the ability to affect both the left and right side of the brain which as a result of this music affects our moods wholly rather then most other stimuli.
 Music firstly affects our brain waves and the beat or tempo listened to has the ability to regulate upwards or downwards which has an affect on our bodily functions. The higher the tempo, the more heightened our senses become and vice versa. 


   Secondly music seems to get our breathing and heart rate beating. We all have that music that gets our hearts pumping and our blood racing.  Its no coincidence as it is a scientific fact that songs and music do have these affects on us. Alternatively you find that while listening to more mellow music and slow music you yourself start to mirror the music by mellowing and calming down. All these are the music psychology effects that songs and music have in altering and affecting out moods. Our bodies are wired in such a way that they respond and react to whatever our minds say. If the mind is happy and feeling good, the body follows suddenly, alternatively when your mood goes to the dumps and the mind is depressed our body and bodily functions will follow. We rely on music to help up with our moods. An example being when i'm happy I find myself listening to reggae Sean Paul (a guilty pleasure) to keep me and my mind in this mood. However some people find that their mood can be altered when they are feeling sad for example and their favourite song comes on the radio therefore being able to shift a persons mood and make you feel so much better.


You find yourself feeling miserable and you turn to your ipod to help you through it music can either make you feel better or mirror and comfort the mood you are already in. In affect music performs many roles in our emotions whether it being your saviour of feeling sad or your complimenting of feeling happy. In the words of  Berthold Auerbach 'music washes away from the soul and dust of everyday life'. Without music our moods would be inescapable , a Stereo-mood is ultimately a pleasure we are known to enjoy and even if you didn't know it yourself there are reasons behind them. Stereo-moods mirror. 


And on that note, lets hope you're feeling happy! If not , here's something to help.  Beau x

 

A Jubileever In British Music?

Throughout the decades , Britain has be driven by an unwavering passion for music. In the spirit of the recent jubilee it might be as well to celebrate the British music we have experienced  throughout them. From 1930's jazz to modern day dub step, music to say the least has seen its fair share of genres and styles. We've had the likes of The Beatles , The Rolling Stones, Belle and Sebastian and Queen as inspirational British bands and bands that have still dominated a lot of peoples music taste in the recent years. These bands are proof that Britain has had and has a lot of influential musicians and proof that they need celebrating! 

Vera Lynn - 1940's

Britain is notably more known for its pop music rather than its classical composers and  jazz genre but in years such as the 1930's pop was not introduced so the likes of American Jazz and swing music became increasingly popular and composers such as Benny Goodman, the 'King of the swing' were top musicians to listen to. This showed a weaker time in British music but by the time it came to the 1940's class  British acts such as Vera Lynn took over the music scene with hits such as 'We'll meet again' and 'The White Cliffs of Dover', however the  frantic American jazz music was still dominating the dance halls and war time events.  
     By the 1950's it was the beginning era of Rock and Roll , British artists like Tommy Steele and Wee Willie Harris brought  Rock 'n' Roll  to Britain and from then on in the 1960's The Beatles hit Britain like a storm, dominating the charts and peoples lives as they have produced 5 top albums and are one of the only bands in Britain ever to do so. The Beatles after over 50 years are still one of the most memorable bands in history, they produced hits such as 'Let is be' , 'Love me do' and 'Hey Jude' , just to name a few.  To say The Beatles were good in my opinion(ofcourse) would be an utter understatement , where in the world would you find a band with this success and history? I believe true British music started here, and over these last 50 or so years, other musicians have had that urge to compete with the success of The Beatles and have found it a struggle to do so.

Moving on swiftly to the 1970's , and these years brought with them the 'Glam Rock' sound with artists such as David Bowie, Elton John and George Michael as you most probably know already but their songs and music are evidence and are proof as such that British artists need celebrating. Elton John for example has written songs for musicals, composed songs, had top albums in the charts and is one of the most influential musicians I've ever known and George Michael , well you've just got to love a bit of Wham.  The evidence of their success is clear as most 1970s going on 80's music is still played now , even by the younger generation, such as myself for example,what is an Ipod without  a bit of 'Club Tropicana' on?

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

    The 1980's brought with them new strands of music. This being New Romantics, Pop, Synth Pop and Heavy Metal, this gave the 80's more of a cultured music taste with bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and made this era specifically  more memorable and introduced the new 'Britpop' into Britain. In the 1990's , along came Oasis, a top hit British band that stormed through the 90s creating hits such as 'Shakermaker' , 'Slide Away' and 'Supersonic'. The band had a noticible presence with them and this helped with their success as people in the 90's looked for the more alternative style. Another greatly admired band of the 90's were the Spice Girls. The Spice Girls, were a phenomenally popular girl band. Every girl (or boy)now probably knows all the lyrics to at least one Spice Girls song whether they liked them or not. Their songs that arguably had no real intelligent slant were still number ones, this shows that music has changed from previous eras and that now the songs that are getting higher chart status are those people prefer to hear rather then the ones that are more of a similar genre, but that is my own opinion.
      In the recent era of British music it is hard to point out specific bands that are most influential as we see new bands derive from everywhere as it is now much easier to get noticed and famous rather then in the past where they had to go out there and play gigs all the time, now there are opportunities all over the media platforms for bands to get known so it is hard to pin point most famous British artists now. Which I think is a shame, in the future when we are going to be looking back at this current era it is going to be hard to pick out specific musicians to say 'they were the best' , however this also means that British music is progressing and we now see bands going international , spreading our music and there are so many different types of music that people have a preferential choice on. Music in Britain has been staggering and its time to celebrate the achievements of British musicians as through this long timeline of music history we have seen it develop in to something magical and something that in years to come will still be remembered. British music is by far one of the best things about Britain as a whole and I hope it is remembered in years to come. And in a true British manner I'm going to have to say the music we as a nation create and have created is definitely 'the bee's knees'


Beau x