Evaluation Essay on Music

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Abstract

My current knowledge of music and its effects is incredibly detailed as I have ADHD which is a mental health disability. Music from my understanding goes hand in hand with mental health, the factors that affect mental health decrease when surrounded by the right kind of music. The research needed to fill the gaps in my knowledge is to find the medical terminology to explain the links between music and how it affects a listener with mental health issues, I will also talk about the links between mental health, music, and drugs. Most people do not know that drugs have a massive part to play when it comes to mental health. Famous musicians that take drugs to help with the effects of mental health will be researched and documented for this dissertation.

Some of the questions I will be asking are why does music have a massive impact on mental health? Why is the mental health of male artists overlooked? I will be answering these questions because I feel very strongly about these statements. Mental health in music is blatantly overlooked the facts and figures all show that the deaths of old and young artists can be linked to their mental health state and that the pressures of stardom are overwhelming. Music can heal but can also destroy, so I will be addressing both sides of the argument.

Section 1: Why does music have a massive impact on mental health?

In the documentary Jamal Edwards explores mental health in the music industry ‘Musicians are three times as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety this here shows that the link between mental health and music is one that is very known in the industry. When asked about the troubles he faced Jamal talks about how he tried to deal with the change in lifestyle as he grew his brand and became more successful. Young Jamal who is now an MBE has worked through anxiety before realizing that it was okay for him to talk about what he is going through.

‘Sasha Keable, who is an artist, featured in the video talks about how she suffered terribly with depression that she deleted her social media accounts due to not being able to cope with the ongoing depression.’

‘Researchers found that music releases dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain. It also found that dopamine was up to 9% higher when volunteers listened to music that they enjoyed. It may be obvious to us, but this is strong evidence of the link between music and mental well-being.’

‘An article from the BBC states that music has a strong link to dopamine as a study, reported in Nature Neuroscience, found that the chemical was released at moments of peak enjoyment. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal said it was the first time that the chemical – called dopamine – had been tested in response to music. This article shows how research was conducted by Dr Vicky Williamson from Goldsmiths College; University of quoted ‘The research didn’t answer why music was so important to humans – but proved that it was. This paper shows that music is inextricably linked with our deepest reward systems.’

As I suffer from ADHD, which is short for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, I’ve incorporated my experiences with music and how it has affected me. Music for me is an escape, I can express myself in a form that can help people understand my feelings and emotions. I am creative and I use my emotional state to produce music or DJ mixes. To me it is important to take people on a journey with the music I produce, I can say I’ve experienced all sides of music as it has helped me get through the darkest moments of my life. I have suffered from depression, self-harming, and dyslexia.

In the difficult times I faced I turned to music to help me refocus. Through the music I made people could see my cry for help as people understand the meaning behind the music, the creation was based on my emotional state therefore people were able to help me accordingly. I used music to cry out for help when I self-harmed, it helped me suppress the depression as I found myself using the energy from my emotions, I used music therapy to help me control the feelings of suicide and self-harm which helped me realize that I found a new way to use music in my everyday life.

To this day I use music to help me through tough times, music is pretty music my full-time career as I am a signed international DJ, music producer, and sound engineer. Having this pressure allows me to stay focused on producing the highest quality DJ mixes and has elevated my career to a different level. I have toured many countries and taken people on journeys throughout my DJ sets by using my ADHD to my advantage. Being a person who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder helps me to take full advantage of my unmatched creativity as I’ve been studying music for eleven years.

Having a mental health disability comes with so many advantages, for example, I can think of creative ideas that no one would expect. Suffering from depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts must have been my toughest challenge in life so far. Being a student with learning difficulties and having to fight through the depths of depression by myself without help meant I built strong character, confidence, and a resilient mindset. Using music to build a fall safe to rely on when I need to let out anger or sadness.

Being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) after coming out of a coma I took full advantage of music to help me recover. The way I took music in when having music therapy changed the way I live my day-to-day life as I now use music to help overcome situations in which my PTSD is triggered, for example, I freeze and have an episode when traveling on a train, but once I play music it shifts my concentration to the lyrics and beats of the song. Turning to music in situations where my body is in a state of immobility helps to take my mind off the situation body is in and helps me to move my focus on how to regain control of the state I am in.

‘Music therapy has been employed as a therapeutic intervention to facilitate healing across various clinical populations. There is theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that individuals with trauma exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by enduring symptoms of distressing memory intrusions, avoidance, emotional disturbance, and hyperarousal, may derive benefits from music therapy. The current narrative review describes the practice of music therapy and presents a theoretically informed assessment and model of music therapy as a tool for addressing symptoms of PTSD. The review also presents key empirical studies that support the theoretical assessment. Social, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms (e.g., community building, emotion regulation, increased pleasure, and anxiety reduction) that promote music therapy’s efficacy as an adjunctive treatment for individuals with posttraumatic stress are discussed. It is concluded that music therapy may be a useful therapeutic tool to reduce symptoms and improve function among individuals with trauma exposure and PTSD. Music has increasingly become internationally recognized as an intervention to be employed with clinical populations. In the United States, the creation of the National Association for Music Therapy and the Certification Board of Music Therapists led to the standardization and emergence of accredited music therapy programs in the early 1950s. Music therapy is now nationally disseminated across a variety of settings including hospitals, youth centers, schools, and prisons (American Music Therapy Association; AMTA).’

The statement above ties in perfectly with my statement on how music helps me overcome my PTSD as the manuscript implies that music therapy is an effective form of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, it does show the uses of music in other ways, not just to help with health issues but also to help criminals in prison. The use of music in therapy has been in action since the 1950’s according to the American music therapy association.

‘The use of Binaural beats is a type of auditory beat stimulation believed by some to have many potential benefits, including improved concentration and increased calmness. A binaural beat happens when you listen to a sound at a certain frequency with one ear and a sound at a different but similar frequency with your other ear. Your brain produces a sound with the frequency of the difference between the two tones.

A very small 2010 pilot study Trusted Source of 20 children with ADHD did yield some promising results. The study looked at whether listening to audio with binaural beats a few times per week could help reduce inattention compared to audio without binaural beats. While the results suggest that binaural beats didn’t have a big impact on inattention, participants in both groups reported having fewer difficulties completing their homework due to inattention during the three weeks of the study.

Research on binaural beats, particularly on their use to improve symptoms of ADHD, is limited. But many people with ADHD have reported increased concentration and focus when listening to binaural beats. They may be worth trying if you’re interested.’

The statement above talks about the use of binaural beats which is when you hear two tones, one in each ear, that are slightly different in frequency, your brain processes a beat at the difference of the frequencies. This kind of study has shown that ADHD and music can be described as two peas in a pod. Mental health has a direct link with music and the factors that music provides to suppress the impacts and effects of mental health. People now realize that music can benefit them in multiple ways.

‘The majority of reviews conclude that music interventions have a positive effect on pain, mood, anxiety, or depressive symptoms in both children and adults in clinical settings. This suggests a positive association in line with epidemiological research and potentially a causal relationship. It is important to note that most of the music interventions described in these studies have been tailored to address the individually assessed needs of a client by a music therapist, which differs significantly from self-initiated musical engagement in daily life. Furthermore, as pointed out in most of these reviews, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the protective effect of music due to the mixed quality of many of the conducted studies, i.e., studies had small samples, suffered from bias due to methodological issues, and there was great variability among the results of the studies.

In summary, the direction of the association between musical engagement and mental health is still unclear with powerful population-based research still failing to establish a relation unequivocally. Furthermore, it seems that differentiating between active amateur and professional musicians might explain the discrepancy. On one hand, research is reporting beneficial effects of music in everyday life on mental health, and on the other hand the high rate of depression and suicides among professional musicians.’

This statement above is accurate in stating the links between music, depression, and the mental health between musicians and artists. This statement also suggests that there isn’t a direct link between music and mental health, but the countless deaths from mental health in the music industry are not something that has gone unnoticed. Many young musicians have died in the last couple of years from the lack of acknowledgment that mental health is an issue in music.

Section 2 Why is the mental health of male artists overlooked?

The last two years have been the most difficult time for the whole world due to the pandemic, but the biggest sector hit was the music industry as no artists were able to perform or go on tours nor were they able to perform at festivals. This resulted in a major spike in mental health-related issues within the music community, there are four male artists for every one female artist, and in what is a primarily male-dominated industry it is irrational to even suggest that male artists would be suffering more than their female counterparts but the fact of the matter is that male mental health isn’t taken as seriously due to society.

The effects the pandemic had on my mental health were life-changing, I lost all motivation to produce music, and record DJ mixes as I lacked the freedom to go outdoors to explore, which is how I find the inspiration for my ability to flourish. The world was on lockdown and so was my mind along with my creativity, the lack of socialization combined with not being able to DJ, my wedding bookings both domestically and internationally is where I was hit the hardest, not only losing out on money but the joys of being able to perform in new countries. I usually travel a handful of times each year to either carry out international residencies or international weddings, not being able to do that for two years not only left me depressed but also wondering if my career would ever be the same again.

Social media for an artist is a vital part of their career as it is how we interact with the world and potentially our next clients, not being able to upload content or vlogs of me doing what I love impacted me as I felt confined to my house, being a social butterfly, I normally headed out to social events to interact with potential clients and performed 5 days a week sometimes even 7 to 18 days back-to-back. Men have such a stigma around how they should and should not act.

[IX] ‘There is a key aspect to the mental health debate that is often overlooked, though, for men. There is a rule in our society that ‘men don’t cry,’ which is a form of toxic masculinity. Shamed and often looked down upon for showing emotions, men have been deprived of a vital outlet for taking care of their mental health. It’s important now more than ever to tackle this destructive stigma. Illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder do not discriminate based on an individual’s gender identity.’

With each passing day, the suicide rate of men in America grows exponentially. In 2017, for every 100,000 people in the U.S., there was an average of 5.73% female suicides to 20.27% male suicides. Every day, young boys internalize the notion that boys are supposed to be stoic and strong and keep their emotions in check. How is this fair? Women are encouraged to talk about their feelings and mental health, while men are criticized for sharing struggles or showing emotions.’

The reference above pulls upon my point about the mental health of males as the article says, ‘Men don’t cry,’ this saying is the reason men and I do not like to open up about the struggles we face, mental health is why over 300 male musicians and artists have committed suicide from having their mental health neglected. Over 20.27% of men out of 100,000 people committed suicide in the USA alone in 2017. ‘The figure for suicides in 2020 for the USA was 45,979 according to the American Foundation for suicide prevention, that in 2020, men died by suicide 3.88x more than women. This could be down to a variety of reasons as to why those men committed suicide.’

‘A documentary featuring Rag’n’Bone Man and members of Portishead and Idles is encouraging men to discuss their mental health. Man Down focuses on men working in the music industry and covers topics such as isolation, depression, and suicide. Anthony Mackie, an MC from Bristol who tried to take his own life, said: ‘Something needs to change’. The Help Musicians charity says 70% of musicians experience anxiety and or depression. Gemma Jennison, director of the film and founder of the Man Down Program, said male musicians were at high risk of experiencing serious mental health issues. Official government statistics show suicide as the biggest killer of men under 65, with males accounting for three-quarters of the suicide deaths in Wales. ‘I wanted to look at what the trends were and why men were struggling. ‘I decided that in order to do that music industries needed to be held accountable or have discussions openly about what they did with artists or with any of their staff about wellbeing. ‘She said the film came about as a way of capturing men’s experiences for a new training program.’

The extract above from the BBC documentary called man down furthermore backs my point on how men’s mental health is overlooked, as the show encourages men to speak up when it comes to how their mental health is doing. Rag’n’Bone Man is a multi-platinum record-selling artist who is involved with the documentary along with a few other big artists, they open up about the struggles they faced, one quote from Rag’n’Bone Man from the documentary that hit home was when he said, ‘It’s not as simple as that, but I can promise anyone that watches the film, once you break that seal, things can change.’ After watching the documentary and listening to what the artists said they suffered, I could relate to everything they said about how the pressure got to them, they talked about how they were affected by being overwhelmed by their career taking off so quickly which led to them feeling like they cannot talk to the loved ones about the challenges they are facing.

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Evaluation Essay on Music

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