Why is Music such a Powerful Art form?

Kushagra Bansal
3 min readJun 2, 2022

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Historically music has contributed to bringing people together. Despite the cultural, language, religious, perceptive and other societal barriers music has become a common ground, an accepted medium to people through its coordinated elements of harmony, symphony, melody, timbre, notes and rhythm.

MODA DAO from https://www.modadao.io/ is here to reshape the music industry and ensure artists have fair ownership rights over their music.

But is music an art form? Is it powerful enough to impact a person creating a difference and if yes, then to what extent?

Music is Universal

In every era, music has proved itself to be a protean artform representing alliance, rivalry and war using melody as in song, physical movements and drama as in dance. It is universal of all art forms. To some cultures, it’s a ritual and to others it is a source of entertainment influencing human emotion and creating its own cultural regime with followers or what can be referred to in the contemporary world as a ‘trend’. According to studies conducted by anthropologists, historians, linguists and artists from around the world, music has provided a transcending source for individuals to connect to a higher power or hope. It has been part of ceremonies concerning both celebrations and death.

Music Heals

Music has been medically known to have a significant effect on the brain. As some might say ‘Music can heal’, it has been known to reduce pain, alleviate stress, energize and reawaken forgotten memories in patients suffering from cognition loss and signs of dementia. But with many benefits of a beautiful melody, there is a an equally implicit harsh side to music. Like a community with passion for music, there exist groups of people who cant stand any form of a song or dance. Also, due to the human tendency of discerning individualism, not everybody has the same taste in music. For some a loud synchrony of bass and rock can be an expression of a being while for others it can just be an example of noise pollution.

Music invokes Emotions

Answering the question asked initially, Yes! Music is powerful enough to affect a person emotionally,physically and viscerally. Music can captivate its listener and invoke physical reactions such as shivers, goosebumps and thrills down their body. But again as said before, the kind of music that affects a person and cause such a reaction has everything to do with their perception, liking and individuality. Positive music reinforces and stimulates the neurotransmitters in the brain which in result increases the release of dopamine (also known as feel-good hormone, generally associated with human pleasure). Music accompanying a dramatic, tragic piece is created in a way that aims to make it’s listener feel the pain, relive the tragic memories, invoke frustration and other negative feelings. Music can drastically affect one’s mood, behavior and personality. Hence, affectively its an indivual’s experience and choices that decides their liking and disliking of a song or genre.

Artistic and Creative

Every creation depicts its creator. In the same way, every song, melody, musical piece is an expression from its artist. It can depict an event, personal experience, memories, understanding or emotion. From generations, music has played a huge part in creatively depicting political, economical, societal and religious nuances. Music provides an opportunity in the form of an empty book to its writer where they can freely exhibit themselves without any barriers.

Concluding, with it’s wide spectrum of colors and emotions, music is everywhere helping individuals to express themselves. And it is here to stay.

image courtesy: MODA DAO

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