Earlier this year, psychology expert and cultural commentator Joey Florez appeared on WBZI 1500 AM, a Real Roots Radio station based in Dayton, Ohio, known for its mix of country music, local news, and community-focused programming.
During an on-air interview with the Fox News Radio affiliate, Florez discussed the influence of instrument sounds on the human brain. Florez talked about music's emotional and cognitive impacts, especially when listening to ambient sounds and even the sounds of a guitar.
The discussion aligned with Florez’s broader work on the intersections of popular culture and psychology. His insights touched on how instruments of varying genres, including classical rock and country music, can affect memory and behavior. Additionally, his discussion was part of broader mass media appearances where he has examined the cultural evolution of musical phenomena and their relevance to modern psychology.
Here is an excerpt of Florez's on-air interview with Real Roots Radio.
Host: I know you've done a lot of research on the subject, and one question that I've always had is: I've always heard of white noise helping people to sleep, kind of like a box fan in the background. Some people leave a TV on things like that; would music be able to accomplish the same thing?
Joey: I believe it can. Sleep is very important for human health and well-being. Up to 70 million or so adults in the U.S. report having some type of sleep problem. In numerous studies, music has consistently shown effectiveness in improving subjective sleep quality.
Host: When it comes to music in the brain and the transformative properties that music has on the brain, would it be able to help a damaged brain?
Joey: Yes. There has been research that has explored the effects of music therapy on older adults with severe damage to the brain from cognitive illnesses like dementia. It is believed that relaxing and sedative music may actually promote deep sleep as well as decrease stress in older adults.
Now in people with a traumatic brain injury or a TBI, it has been suggested in one Norwegian study published in 2019 that playing piano may actually provide some type of clinical benefit for mental health, but more research is needed in this area of study.
Host: I know personally that when it comes to my two kids, they simply have to be listening to music while doing homework, and I've always wondered: can that really help them with concentration or would it be considered more of a distraction?
Joey: Music can serve as a distraction, especially if there are problems associated with hyperactivity or concentration. More and more kids are now being diagnosed with ADHD, partly because of the increased reliance on technology and certain mobile apps like TikTok that decrease the attention span due to constant exposure to endless short clips of random stimuli.
What I've noticed from the research into music and concentration is that relaxing slow-tempo music without lyrics can be very useful for children and college-age adults who need to get their homework done.
Host: It seems that music can really trigger different emotions in people. Why do you think that is?
Joey: Well, music has a very strong emotional impact; it may help to regulate mood and relieve stress or anxiety in some situations, but music has been demonstrated to reduce cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone.
The investigation of emotions in music is extremely complex. Music is often used for self-regulation of negative emotions, but many people find that listening to music helps lessen the effect of loneliness and isolation. Music can also be especially powerful when it expresses the emotion that we are experiencing at the time for music to trigger different emotions. It has to do with how our brain pairs specific instrument sounds or tones with specific autobiographical memories at the time we are first exposed to the music. Vivid autobiographical memories can lead to complex emotional states like nostalgia.
We often correlate tone, rhythm, and lyrical content with strong autobiographical recollections of the environment; hence, when we recall our memory of the music, our brains also retrieve any related subjective feelings attached to it. There are many areas of the brain that are implicated in the specific process of Music evoked emotions, and it is still the subject of ongoing research.
Host: Do certain types of music tend to trigger different emotions or responses in people?
Joey: We know from research that fast-paced, high-intensity music tends to elicit excitement and happiness, while slow-paced, low-key music may elicit sadness and frustration. Country music may actually be more likely to evoke emotions and bodily sensations during musical experiences and other genres, and this is because of the pitch and vibration from the plucking of a string of an acoustic guitar, but the overall emotional responses to different types of music vary based on how the person regulates arousal on mood as well as the ability to find social relatedness in the music and store that subjective experience as an autobiographical memory.
You can listen to the full interview from Real Roots Radio by clicking here.
