Annotated Bibliography

Harris, Lauren Julius. “Does Music Matter? A Look at the Issues and the Evidence.” 

Developmental Neuropsychology, vol. 44, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 104–145. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/87565641.2016.1274316.

Summary: This is an academic journal written by Lauren Julius Harris which discusses different subjects under the question “Does music matter?” The topic of school systems neglecting the arts (music being included) in general is mainly focused on in the introduction, and explains how despite statements from organizations like The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) about how essential the arts are for children to learn how to appreciate the world around them, the United States Department of Education continues to under budget art programs. The rest of the academic journal goes into separate topics all relating to music, separated by headings.

Asses: This is a scholarly source from EBSCOHost. It is credible, having many sources used and credited, and comes from a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the intersection of developmental psychology and neuropsychology, called Developmental Neuropsychology. It is also mentioned that there were studies done by them in order to research further on the subject. In order to find this article, I went on EBSCOHost and used the search bar to search for “music and matter”, wielding this article as the first result because both words are in the title. It already gives full access to the article upon opening it.

Reflect: This source has a lot of information about how music affects the brain, and I will be taking snippets from some of the different sections. It allows me to gain much more insight while all being in one article, which is convenient. 

Quote: “In a study, with group lessons, 32 kindergarten children who, for 4 months, had twice-weekly 20-minute-long piano lessons scored higher on two spatial tests, Block Building and Puzzle Block (arranging puzzle pieces to create a familiar object), than 28 children with no lessons, and scored even higher after 4 more months of lessons (Harris 44).”

Paraphrase: In a study, kindergarten children who had music lessons for 4 months scored higher on two spatial tests than other kindergarten children who had no lessons (Harris 44).

Quote: “musicians were more able than non-musicians to follow pitch changes (Bidelman, Gandour, & Krishnan, 2010) and to discriminate syllables in a noisy environment (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010),” (Harris 61). 

Paraphrase: compared to non-musicians, musicians were more able to hear pitch changes in regular conversations and differentiate syllables in a noisy environment (Harris 61).

 

Regen, Jon. “The Power of Positivity: An Engaging Talk about Songwriting, Influences, 

and His New Rig for the Retro Futura Tour.” 

Electronic Musician, vol. 33, no. 7, July 2017, pp. 32–35. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=123730711&site=ehost-live. 

Summary: This is an interview conducted by Jon Regen, interviewing an electronic musician, Howard Jones. In the interview, Jones speaks about the messages he conveys in his music, some of his inspirations when creating music, and what he thinks about the impact of his music.

Asses: This is a credible source from EBSCOHost, being an interview with a professional musician. It is always beneficial to hear from someone who is well versed in the topic you are researching/writing about. To find this interview, I went on EBSCOHost and used the search bar to search for “musician and influence and interview and music”, then setting the limit on publication date to 2010-2020, then setting the language to only English written documents. It is the second result to come up. I made it so precise because I specifically wanted a recent interview with a musician that talks about some type of influence. 

Reflect: This interview will be useful in building up my argument because I already have a few other interviews of musicians, so this will just add to those and allow me to have a decent amount of examples regarding personal answers from musicians themselves. 

Quote: “I thought that, as an artist, I wanted to say something that encouraged people to really go for the things that they wanted, and to not be afraid to be who they were,” (Regen 32).

Paraphrase: As an artist, Jones said that he wants to use his music to encourage his listeners to pursue the things they want to, and to not be afraid to be themselves (Regen 32).  When asked if he imagined his music having as much of an impact as it has over the past few decades, Jones stated that he hoped it would be so impactful, explaining how he. 

 

Ansani, Alessandro, et al. “‘You Will Be Judged by the Music I Hear’: A Study on the Influence of Music on Moral Judgement.” 

Web Intelligence (2405-6456), vol. 17, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 53–62. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3233/WEB-190400.

Summary: This is an academic journal about the ways different music affects a person’s moral judgement. It was an experiment, and this article describes the findings of said experiment. The authors of this article looked at previous studies conducted that also analyzed a person’s judgement based on music, and was that it was questionable because of the types of music they used (they believed they were uncomparable/unequal). The authors of this article decided to do their own experiment, taking into account the issues they saw in the other studies and avoiding them.

Asses: This is a credible source from EBSCOHost, being a scientific experiment. It includes everything from data tables to explanations, and has all of their sources credited and cited. Since it took the issues found in previous studies done on this subject and improved upon them, I believe this source is reliable and accurate. To find this article, I searched on EBSCOHost for “music and influence and emotion” and it came up on the first page of results. 

Reflect: This is very relevant to my topic, as it is an experiment specifically on how music influences the mind. It has a lot of interesting data shown and I feel like this will work very well in my essay. The analysis done to make sure their study was done correctly and as accurately as possible was good to include, making it even more reliable in my eyes. 

Quote: “The study presented demonstrates that negative emotions such as annoyance and sadness induced through music can worsen moral judgement,” (Alessandro et al. 87).

Quote: “The general results of our study suggest that music has a strong framing effect, thus involving relevant implications for marketing, advertising, political communication, persuasive technologies,” (Alessandro et al. 102).

 

Reinoso-Carvalho, Felipe, et al. “Not Just Another Pint! The Role of Emotion Induced by Music on the Consumer’s Tasting Experience.”

 Multisensory Research, vol. 32, no. 4/5, June 2019, pp. 367–400. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1163/22134808-20191374.

Summary: This is an academic journal that talks about the influence music has on people’s sense of taste. This is another experiment, and again brings up lots of data and analysis. Specifically, the participants of this experiment were tasting the same beer while listening to different types of music, and asked the same questions about the beer while listening to each of  the two types of music (positive-associated and negative-associated music).  

Asses: This is a credible source from EBSCOHost as it is again another scientific experiment. It mentions a lot of other experiments related to music and taste, and provides many examples of this powerful influence different types of music has over our sense of taste.To find this article I searched on EBSCOHost for “music and influence and emotion” and it came up on the first page of results.

Reflect: I found this article topic to be very interesting and I feel like I could definitely use it in my essay. It is credible because it is a scientific experiment that has its sources credited and cited as well. I believe something like this will catch the reader’s attention and keep them engaged while furthering my argument. 

Quote: “researchers have managed to isolate a number of specific sonic and musical parameters (such as pitch and instrumentation) that can be used to modify the tasting experience in predictable ways,” (Felipe et al. 6).

Quote: “Different studies have assessed the particular influence of sound and music on the behavior of consumers. For instance, Biswas et al. (2019) recently reported that people tend to buy healthier food when there is quiet music/noise, as compared to loud background music/noise, or a silent control condition. Moreover, in this study, exposure to loud music/noise led to unhealthier food choices,” (Felipe et al. 10).

Paraphrase: Studies have shown that sound and music can also influence the behavior of consumers, where with quiet sounds and music people tend to buy more healthier foods and with loud sounds and noise they tend to buy less healthy foods (Felipe et al. 10).

 

Moelants, Dirk, et al. “The Influence of an Audience on Performers: A Comparison Between Rehearsal and Concert Using Audio, Video and Movement Data.” 

Journal of New Music Research, vol. 41, no. 1, Mar. 2012, pp. 67–78. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/09298215.2011.642392.

Summary: This is another academic journal that researches the difference between the rehearsal for a concert, and the actual concert itself. It focuses on audio, video, and movement data of the musicians. This experiment was primarily conducted to answer the question of what makes the rehearsal feel so much different than the actual concert (besides the obvious answer of the audience being there). They want to specifically see what makes the audience being there so different. 

Asses: This is a credible source from EBSCOHost, as it is an experiment used to further the results of previous studies in order to get a better understanding. It provides tables and data to help visualize their results, and has well written explanations. 

Reflect: I believe that this source will be a great addition to the previous information I have from the interviews from class. I would mention the answers to my interview questions, and then use the results from this study to back up their answers. 

Quote: “The main effect seems to be the changes in movement of the singer,” (Dirk et al. 45).