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The power of music and happiness

In today’s column, we take you through a musical exploration to understand the psychology of music, productivity and positivity.

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Studies have shown children who listen to Mozart 15 minutes before a test, perform better than those who listen to relaxation music. Music may bring about a short-term improvement in spatial temporal activities.

Without music, life would be a mistake. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Anthropologists have found flutes made from animal bones, which date back to more than 35000 years back. Right up there with cave-paintings, music has been part of human existence. Books and the written word entered the human race much later. Anthropologists also tell us that every single society on this planet had music as part of their social fabric. Every single culture has had music and continues to have music as part of their lives. 

Language and words can barely describe emotions and deep feelings, such as non-vocalisation of words, like oooh or aaahhh. A long yessss or a long noooo communicates much more than just a positive or negative reaction. Music holds the capability to reach and open up pathways in our minds that language is not capable of doing. Music has the power to engage multiple centres of the brain in a flash. 

Why do we feel good when we listen to music? When we anticipate a certain music, it could be just the first opening bars of MS Subbulakshmi’s 'Suprabhatam' 

Kausalyaa Su-PrajaaRaamaPuurvaa-SandhyaaPravartate | Uttissttha Nara-ShaarduulaKarttavyamDaivam-Aahnikam ||1||

Which translated, reads like this: 
O Rama, the most Excellent Son of Kaushalya; in the East the Dawn is fast Approaching, in this Beautiful Juncture of Night and Day, Please Wake Up in Our Hearts, O Purushottama, so that we can perform our Daily Duties as Divine Rituals unto You and thus do the Ultimate Duty of our lives.

Just a few words and we are reminded of our duty and rituals. 

From religion let's jump to pop music. It could be the first three beats of the Black Eyed Peas', “I gotta feeling”; and our minds make a very powerful association. The anticipation that something good is going to take place, activates our brains, and then when we hear the strains come through more clearly, the brain releases, dopamine or the “feel good” chemicals, found in chocolate and cocaine, which activates our reward centres. 

Music impacts our entire brain; the brain stem, the prefrontal cortex, the limbic system and the cerebellum. It can reach into areas where usual words and language cannot be penetrated. 

I have tried this in a room full of very serious people. Play this track for ten seconds, and you will be greeted with howls (sometimes nonverbal) of protests, if you switch off the music in five seconds. People don’t like to be teased. 

Humanity connects beyond a language. Take a track like 'Kolaveri', most people don’t even know the lyrics, or cannot event decipher the lyrics, yet it gets the blood pumping. The brain makes the connection of 'Kolaveri' to perhaps an anthem. 

The same goes for the Irish singer, Enya. 


It is the entire human experience, served up on a smorgasbord of words, instruments, tones and arrangements. When you listen to music, the most ancient and primal reward circuits open up. Music perhaps is a good primer for positivity. Think about it, most music is based on the notes of “Sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa” or “Do re mi fa so la ti mo”. Music creates a shared memory bank for humanity. 

At the forefront of music research is the famed Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, Director, Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise in McGill University. His music credentials come from the fact that he was in a punk band. He has written a seminal book called The World In Six Songs. We know that knowledge is preserved in songs. Here are the six songs. 

Song 1: Music creates bonds and friendships 

The most common song which I have heard sung across the world is the instant pick-me-up song 'Happy Birthday'. I am usually the loudest singer, because the loudest singer usually gets the first and largest slice of cake! 

Marriage ceremonies have music and song; before, during and after the ceremony. The sangeet ceremony in India is now perhaps taking centre stage. Of course, which bachelorette party is complete without music, and with other, shall we say, accompaniments?

When we sing and dance, our neurons mirror each other and fire in cadence with the beat of the music. When we dance together, we mimic each other creating common bonds, quality notwithstanding. 

Since ancient times, even in battles, warriors were called to battle with the blowing of conches, trumpets and pipes. Drums and percussions encouraged soldiers to march to a single beat. 

Cliched as it may sound, do listen to this song in its entirety. It talks about the tough times, it talks about the goal being difficult, it talks about hope and despair. It talks about codes on how to overcome adversity with each other. It brings together different fabrics and threads into a tapestry. 

Sometimes, they become global anthems, exhorting each other that “we are the world” or even women the world over urging that they can survive and thrive. 

Neuroscience shows that listening to music releases oxytocin, a hormone linked to pair bonding and social recognition. Music may be playing a role in group bonding and social identification.

So for a moment, keep away those ear-phones and share your music! Music creates cohesive bonds for human endeavour - war, peace, building peaceful societies and thriving individuals. 

Song 2: Music brings us joy

When we listen to music, it releases dopamine, which is the “feel good” hormone. Dopamine triggers an elevation in our mood, it boosts our immune system and alters the chemistry in our brain. 

In the song, 'Chinna Chinna Aasai', when Roja talks about her tiny-tiny ambitions, she is broadcasting her emotion-laden aspirations. With music, we broadcast emotional states, we can almost feel the need to jump into those waterfalls and water-laden fields and be part of her quest for happiness. 

Song 3: Music comforts us when negativity strikes 

Sadness surrounds us. It is natural. It is a part of being human. Millions of people leave their families, in search of livelihood. Loneliness is a part of working professionals. Sometimes we are frustrated with the progress that our country makes or why it has not made the progress it has within its grasp.  

Music affects a rise in serotonin, which influences moods, sexual desires, memory function and sleep patterns. Music can relieve your blood pressure, work on your anxiety levels and even help in combating depression. 


Even music that is sad, is comforting. When we listen to music that reflects our sadness, the brain releases prolactin, a hormone that is a tranquiliser for the body. It is the same hormone released during the painful process of childbirth or even orgasm. It is the same hormone that is released when a mother nurses her child. It calms your blood pressure and respiration

In the last column, I spoke about common humanity. When you hear sad music, you know that someone else has gone through the same experience.

Music therapists are now using the powers of music along with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists to aid the recovery of their patients. Neural networks process both musical and non-musical information as a guide to recovery. Music helps you connect with the broader humanity to gain strength.  

Song 4: Music transmits societal codes and knowledge 

Our epic texts were communicated in poetry and music. In pre-historic times, literacy was an exception rather than norm. People could not read and write, so music was a method to get people to remember codes of conduct. 

Each generation has its music. The generation today relates to Iktara. 

In my mind, Iktara is more a song of taking personal responsibility for yourself and enabling the dreams and aspirations to even strangers. It is about helping someone in their quest to….wake up, perhaps with no personal gain. It is not about waking up your friend Sid, but it is also recognising your own emotions, and what they are guiding you towards.

Iktara, is a metaphor of how an instrument with just a single string can not only create an entire melody, but lead much bolder instruments.

Song 5: Music has been the carrier of religiosity 

Religion encourages the values of courage, wisdom, transcendence, humanity, justice and courage. Anthropologists have found that along with music, all societies look for God as a form of guidance. I recall for you, what I had written in an earlier column on religiosity

“It is the time of festivals and religiosity. Music and festivals of music, where the soul stirring strains of the 10th century equivalents of the contemporary MS Subbulakshmi and Bhimsen Joshi would hold people in their thrall. Apparently dance forms in Thailand and many parts of India have some origins in temples. The chanting of ancient texts handed down since hundreds of years are a testimony of the progress that humans have made. Their penmanship, manifested through songs & poetry, were written by the masters of the day. Each word would have been crafted to perfection, through layers of diligent scrutiny and iterations and then with great labour transmitted through the tests of time.”

Music makes religious festivals an occasion of joy and bonding, music helps connect our collective pasts with a future we wish to create. We continue the chain of ceremony through rituals, binding our collective past, to our personal future. Such rituals elevate us, from the mundane to consider our role in the world and the future of the world. Music unites ore reptilian brain with our primate and human brain, binding our thoughts to movement, memory, hopes and desires.

Song 6: Finally, music embodies the emotion of love

First at the individual level, in no movie has music ever been connected to the supreme emotion of love than Love Actually

Our bodies are engulfed with oxytocin, which unites human beings together. 

The greatest love known to mankind has been the love of the human being. To conclude, when you add all the six books of music; friendships, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge and love; you would perhaps get humanity in its very essence. 
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In a poem, originally titled, Taranah-E-Hindi, by Muhammad Iqbal, a song we more commonly know as 'Sare Jahan Se Accha'. Here is a rendition by none other than Amitabh Bachchan. 

It reminds us, that despite our shortcomings and scarcity, we are birds, capable of singing a very sweet note, in a common society called our nation. It reminds us that religion does not teach you to keep an enmity festering in our minds. 

The last poem, exhorts you to the age-old adage of taking risks. It is renewing the faith, that independence is in being in the moment. Look afresh, seek the amazement in every moment and every breath. 

It is the love of existence, which is the highest love of all. The love of humanity with all our flaws and destructiveness. A love of the goodness which, we sometimes show in extreme difficulty. Of loving those who others might find unlovable, Of being honest when there is nothing to gain. The love of the heroism of doing the right thing, even when no one can see us doing it. – Daniel Levitin

The author is the founder of The Positivity Company. This is part of a series called 'Positive Mondays' which describes how positivity has a multiplicative effect, simultaneously impacting all work and life outcomes.​

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