Question

Harmful effects of music

Answer 1

The harmful effects of music on body and mind are due to various factors. The most important of these is the kind or quality of the music. But there are others of a secondary character which can be influential and at times even decisive. These are: the amount of the music; the combination and succession of different kinds of music; the psycho­physiological constitution of each listener; the particular emotional state in which he or she is at the time. Thus, a piece that is disturbing and upsetting to one person may have no or little injurious effect on another; for instance, a listener who is sensitive to music and whose passions are strong and not under control, will be influenced in a very different way from a listener of the intellectual type who is emotionally cold and unresponsive. If a person is in love, he will be much more disturbed and excited by erotic music than when his passion is dormant or when it has burned itself out, leaving only the cold ashes of disappointment. In some extreme cases, when listeners are abnormally sensitive, music can be the cause of serious troubles. Evidence of this has been given by Dr. MacDonald Hastings, who in his study on “Musicogenic Epilepsy” mentions twenty cases, eleven of them his own patients, in which epileptic fits were brought on by music. (Quoted by F. Howes in his book, Man, Mind and Music, p. 158).


mark as breanliest pleeeeaseeeee