Music releases a bonding hormone called oxytocin, which makes people explore and share emotional traits. Regardless of culture, language, or even background, music can bring out emotions and connect the differences between people. In an article by Jill Suttie, “How Music Bonds Us Together,” she states that “music is more than just a common pleasure.”
Music can impact memories and experiences. It can impact experiences by showing how music can change. It can become a part of people’s everyday life and be used to celebrate friendships, accomplishments, and or even milestones. Once there is a memory made with a song, every time it’s played again, people think of that memory and how it connected to the moment. For me, given my background in athletics, every time I hear “Bring Em Out” by T.I, I think of volleyball. While the opposing team was warming up, my team would line up waiting to run out to that song when it was our turn to warm up before the game. Whenever that song plays, it is super nostalgic for me and my team, thinking about all the memories from the volleyball season we have created.
Music can capture the little moments that words might not. It’s a deeper level of connection. Harmonies can help people with feeling understood or comfortable, in a way no one would understand. Hearing a song that they really connect to can make them feel less alone.
There have been so many researchers and doctors that really focus their studies on music and why or how people connect just from a song. It is crazy to think that people make bonds, just from one song, concert, or band. “The bottom line is that in all cultures, all over the world, music has a special place among humans (and other animals as well), and it affects us in characteristic ways,” says Gene Beresin in the article “The Power of Music; To Feel, Heal and Connect.”
Music can also bring an athletic team together before big games, practices, or even just a team bonding experience. Junior Phoenix Smith is a lacrosse player at Casa Grande, and has been a varsity player for four years. Phoenix is a great team player who thinks music “gets all the boys hyped up and locked in for the game!”
Whether it’s listening to their headphones on the bus, or the music from the loud speaker on the field, it immediately calms their minds and removes their nerves. The focus starts when the music starts. In his article “How Music Enhances Athletic Performance and Training,” Mike Richards states that “Music can help block out distractions, improving focus, by connecting certain songs to certain emotions.”
Music within the dance world holds a different meaning when it comes to relating. Music is the movement, energy, and vibration that exist in space within the world of dance. Natalie Morris is a dancer at our local Studio C in Petaluma and attends Casa Grande as a junior.
She has been dancing for several years. “I connect music to dance by the counts and the vibes of the song and how that leads me to dance,” says Natalie. In the dance community, music has a deeper meaning rather than “getting ready for a game or practice” because music is a part of their “game” or “practice.” Music is how they learn step by step and lead them through their competitive dancing in the studio.
Softball: the intensity, the team work, the good sportsmanship; music is also big part on and off the softball field. Senior Abby McSweeney is a four year varsity softball player. For her, music connects people on the softball field or during practice by putting “everyone in a good mood and [making them] more open to team work.”
In her article called “Music That Moves: The Tunes That Lead Our Athletics to Success,” Ilaria Cline says that music “perfectly balances joy, teamwork, and motivation, helping the softball players stay confident and connected during practice and games.”
Music is more than just noise in the background; it is a force to connect people in ways words sometimes cannot. Everyone thinks of music in different ways whether it’s through memories intertwined with their favorite song, game hype up songs, vibes to a dance, or just a bonding experience through teamwork.
Music can do so many things that people don’t realize in their everyday lives. Harmonies do more than create melodies, they create strong connections through human beings.
