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Mishra 1 Amitabh Mishra Fuentes English 1102 30 Mar 2014 Music Short Story One night, in a parlor, three

men were relaxing and having a conversation about music. The first man, Daniel Levitin, was the author of the book This is Your Brain On Music: The Science of Human Obsession. The second man, Aniruddh Patel, who is a neurologist and was in a interview of The Power of Music on the Brain. The third man is David Walsh, who performed research on the negative effects of music on family and children. Levitin says we enjoy certain types of music based on the types of beats, rhythms, and patterns. People enjoy certain types of patterns that make them like the music that they do, which explains why music critics cannot fully understand what a listener enjoys or not. Levitin also says that we grow up listening to the music that we listen to because they are attached to us as a kid emotionally. Aniruddh agrees saying that happens because music provides sound structures that develop into a mental framework for that type of music. Aniruddh also brings up the point that music can have a positive effect by improving our focus and can affect many other processes and actions. It stimulates deep thinking, emotions, sequencing, and abstract thinking. Levitin says that music does in fact stimulate those things. For example he says that music is used by advertisers to make their products seem more dramatic or more hip and cool

Mishra 2 than their competitions. Music in movies and shows can activate our senses in fear, anger, and other emotions too. This makes media and entertainment more interesting to viewers. Although these can be some positive effects, there can be negative ones as David Walsh says. David Walsh says that music can be a bad influence to listeners of younger ages. I agree with David because music can also be in the form of music videos which can show explicit content, and they have vulgar language that parents may not want their children to listen to. It has been shown that music can lead to troubled teens and dangerous behaviors. I also say that although music can have its negatives, those are in the past. I think that society has changed a lot since the past in that we know better and have more common sense. I do agree with what Aniruddh and Levitin in that music does affect productivity and focus. In my personal experience fast-paced music helps me do my work faster and slower music helps me relax better. Levitin says that parts of music such as melody, harmony, and tone all combine together to affect our brains and change our moods and such. Aniruddh also says that these affect both hemispheres of the mind and this can lead to associations and how we interpret things. In the end, Aniruddh says that music is one of the most powerful ways to activate the brain. I left the parlor to let the three men continue arguing about the positives and negatives of how music affects the mind, mood, and behaviors.

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