The area of sound is often considered subjective, which is true to a certain extent, but the way in which people can feel emotions can be measured by a simple smile. That is the aim of my study into the area of how sound can impact a person’s mood. I have chosen to investigate numerous attributes of sound such as, tempo, instruments, notes and genre, and discover what role they play in creating emotion in the sound.

The area is very well documented and people have been doing studies since the early 20^th century into how music can have a major effect on people’s lives, I ultimately want to bring this research into games. Allow music designer on video games to learn the tools that can compose sounds that make a player empathise with the main character and feel emotions at certain points. To do this I will investigate what music types have what particular effect on the human brain, and establish what genre and tempo the sound must do to portray a particular emotion.

The Journal in Music directs your mood, by Marjolein D. van der Zwaag, Eindhoven: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2012 – Proefschrift, uses a similar experiment to the one that I was planning, which is getting people to listen to music while doing general tasks, like washing up, and seeing how they feel after. Depending on the type of music they listened to they either felt happier or sadder, therefore proving that sound had an effect on their mood.

This is the base of my studies. In this journal he effectively proves that sound can have an effect on people’s emotions, as the people who listened to happier music became happy. My experiment will be similar, I will present my testers with numerous songs that follow certain criteria that I will list down below, and the songs will then be assessed in a test where the person gives a score to how they feel before and after listening to the sound. This test must be done in isolation from any gameplay of the game as a primary test that the gameplay is not an added stimuli to the mood changes.

For starting the experiment, I first needed to find what the correct criteria needed, for this I received some pointers in the area that I needed to investigate, and instruments and tempo were suggested. Genre was a particular need as most music is often defined into these categories.

Music is known to tap into the parts of the brain that is why it is utilized by many experts in treating depression. The tempo, rhythm, and pitch of music are managed in the areas of brain that deal with emotion and mood. The hippocampus is a responsible for spatial orientation, it also brings about emotional responses. The prefrontal cortex managed these emotions, it is also the reasoning part of the brain.

This is why music has such a big impact on a person’s emotions. The music targets particularly the part of the brain that handles emotions. The various aspects of music can affect the brain in many different ways and can often yield different results, from improving mood to decreasing the mood.

To demonstrate just how important music is to general and mental health of people, here are a few facts. Music is integral to our health.

Scientists of the University of Missouri have found that people can boost their mood by just listening to upbeat music. Sadder music can decrease the mood. People often listen to music that reflects their own current mood instead of the opposite which normally helps them more than similar music.

Music therapy has been used for centuries as a way to restore energy, improve mood, and even help the body heal more naturally. Music is proven to help deal with Stress. Doctors suggest soothing tunes to lower heart rate and help you breathe easier, making your own music also has the same effects.

Music is often encouraged at many hospitals to help depressed patients recover from their illness. Music has helped numerous patients with cancer and other illnesses that have also been depressed. Many surgeons now give their patients music before their operations to calm the patient down.

Many people listen to music while trying to fall asleep, it can help people with Insomnia become calmer and drowsier. To wake someone up however, lively music is required much like Dubstep music.

 Since ancient times, it has been known that certain kinds of music can help soothe away stress. Calming background music can significantly increase calmness in nursing homes for patients with dementia.

Music can help people become less stressed and keep them more focused, an exception to this is while driving which is proven to distract them, a key argument in this case is why people turn off the radio when you’re lost.

Work-Related stresses can be alleviated by listening to music. Soothing tones help relax the tensed muscles, as well as slow your breathing rate. 

In a study conducted by researchers from Penn State University, results showed that students who listened to music were more likely to feel more joyful, optimistic, friendly, and calm and relaxed.

Music is a key medium in this world, its importance boundless, a person’s personality can even be identified from the types of music they listen to. I know it’s hard to believe, but after reading the example of Indie fans, it was a complete description of myself.

(http://c.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2013/12/3022942-inline-i-2-music-and-our-brains.png)

“Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease, Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease, Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introvert and at ease, Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing, Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle, Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing, Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease, Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle, Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard working, and not gentle, Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing, Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease, Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not creative and not at ease, and Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle, and at ease.” (Excerpt from: http://www.fastcompany.com/3022942/work-smart/the-surprising-science-behind-what-music-does-to-our-brains)

People often turn to upbeat music whenever they are sad. For hundreds of years, Music has made people happy. It is the medium that encourages the senses of the brain linked with mood to perk up. Other mediums such as Video and Games target the sight more so than the sound. The reason it makes people happier is because of its soothing tones that help release serotonin, a hormone that creates happiness in people. It also releases dopamine, a feel good hormone, all over the body.

Songs with uplifting beats and lyrics can uplift a person’s mood. The inspirational lyrics in some songs can make a person stop feeling sorry for himself and go back and take another shot at whatever he is doing in life. Songs like Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”, where he raps that he you can’t just sit by and let your opportunities go, you just have to lose yourself in the moment and take that opportunity or you might never get it again, can often inspire people just to take a chance on something that they might not necessarily think will work but that does work.

The research indicates that even the loudest of songs can make a person feel positive, the genres can affect a person in a different way than someone else, but, in general, they all have a general effect.

There is however “sad” music that can be detrimental to a person’s mood. In an experiment conducted, where the testers where placed into two groups. One group was listening to upbeat music and the other to sombre music. The people listening to the happy music felt happy after wards, and the others felt even worse than they did before. Those who listened to the sad music became demotivated with life and were unconfident of doing simple tasks in their own lives.

Rap can give you an overpowering, intense feeling that can be misled as confidence, it can improve happiness, anger, and sadness. However, as a person gets older the loud music can make older people more irritated. Alternative has mixed results due to the many types, in general they make people feel sadder, Country is known to cause high levels of irritation and stress due to its instrumental pitch and vocal sounds, but in general, more people reported becoming happier through listening to this genre.  Rock has a similar affect to Rap, the fast beat and loud noises can cause a feeling of intensity and outgoing energy, it can make the person more energetic, it gets their blood pumping. Classical has a calming effect, due to its relaxing temp and soothing sounds it can calm a person and alleviate anxiety. Jazz can make people happier and calmer, it is just less effective at his than classical is.

Tempo is strongly linked with arousal. Fast paced music has been shown to raise arousal levels. This effectively means that the body itself links to the tempo of the music. It is known for heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rates to increase or decrease depending on what type of music the person is listening to. An example of this would be someone who is listening to dance music would have an increase in their heart rate and feel livelier, and more pumped up.

We can often feel the mood of the music in ourselves, but that can’t be measured, what can be measured however, is the change in the persons expressions, if they feel more relaxed you will see it in their faces. We can actually understand the emotions in music without actually knowing.

Music tends to be in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heart beats. In general the music tempo equals the rate of the heart of the listener, this allows synchronisation of the heart and the music allowing a nice blend, and this is a key reason why music helps people become happier. This is due to the hearth rate increase, which gets the blood pumping, which will make them feel different than before. A key example of this would be Rock/Metal who get people pumped up and feel angrier.

It is suggested that anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed. Anything less than 60 bpm is often depressed. Anything 100 bpm upwards is increasingly lively. The common tempo for most music is 80-120 bpm.

Despite being well documented, there has been little research in the area in recent years.  Musical effects on exercise has been done since 1911, when Leonard Ayres, found that cyclists cycled faster when listening to music. This is because music drowns out the brains need to rest. This is due to the music interrupting the signals being sent to the brain by the muscles that are tired.

(http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2013/12/3022942-inline-i-4-music-and-our-brains.png)

This image here shows the general tempo that each of the music genres has, as you can see jazz is low on the scale due to its sombre sound, and dubstep is high due to its quick beats and upbeat rhythm.

My idea for user testing was to get the user to play the game with and without music to verify that the music helps improve mood, use 1 to 10 ratings systems before and after the test. However, music is proven to improve mood, and I ultimately want to prove which music has what effect on the user. This will be done by if the player puts a lower number than the start that genre will be a more sad effect, if it’s higher it will have the opposite effect.

Another way to do the user testing would be to get them to play the game with sounds that impact a person in the opposite way than the desired effect of the level, so for example, in a sad and sombre part of the game, play happy dance music that will pump the player up, rather than the one that will make the player empathise with the character.

For the initial test however, I will get the testers to listen to the music in isolation to make sure that it is in fact the sounds that are impacting the player’s mood. This will be done by giving them headphones, and just listening to the sounds and giving a score on their mood before and after testing.

This is an example of a user test that I can adapt to figure out what percentage of people actually respond to the music in the desired ways.

? = What effect it has on a listener's mood

The way I will represent the instrument is an instrument heavy song so in the case of l The Killers Sam’s Town (Instrumental) the leading instrument is Piano.

I have narrowed down the instruments because it doesn’t make sense for more instruments to be in an unsuitable genre.

Dance (3 songs)

Decks - Slow Tempo - ?

Decks – Mid Tempo - ?

Decks - Fast Tempo - ?

Rock (9 songs)

Electric Guitar - Slow Tempo - ?

Electric Guitar – Mid Tempo - ?

Electric Guitar - Fast Tempo - ?

Acoustic Guitar - Slow Tempo - ?

Acoustic Guitar – Mid Tempo - ?

Acoustic Guitar - Fast Tempo - ?

Drum - Slow Tempo - ?

Drum – Mid Tempo - ?

Drum - Fast Tempo - ?

Piano - Slow Tempo - ?

Piano   - Mid Tempo - ?

Piano   - Fast Tempo - ?

Classical (3 songs)

Piano - Slow Tempo - ?

Piano   - Mid Tempo - ?

Piano   - Fast Tempo - ?

There are a lot of songs that need to be tested so for easiness to the experiment not to tire out my testers and for them to give inaccurate answers, I will limit the songs to two a genre, based on my hypothesis of which songs will have the best effect on the players.

The songs I will use for the primary test will not be of my own composition, they will be examples that I have received from free sound libraries that fit my needs, and they are references below. The results from the final project test will differ in no way, as they are still trying to figure out the same thing. I will also complete a user test once my songs have been completed, this test is a demo of the real test, and will be done in complete isolation of anything to do with the game, to make sure that the sounds are the reason for the mood changes.

I played them the dance music first, the results were common with my research, where 4 out of 5 testers said that they had improved from a 5 in emotions to a 6 or 7 in one case. The other reported a 5 in his mood, this is due to his personal preferences however, I believe.

Dance Song 1: Menu Music

Dance Song 2: Desert Music (Higher BPM)

Rock Song 1: Garage Band

Rock Song 2: Drums

Classical Song 1

Classical Song 2

These results father proves the point that the higher tempo a sound has the more likely it is to increase a person’s mood. That if you want to make a person happier and more pumped up, and more motivated that dance music is a great way to do it. The drums have a nice tempo to them and seem to uplift a few people even if it is in a small way, while the garage band sound lifts them higher due to the higher tempo and added guitar rhythms. The classical songs results showed what I expected, that many would find it sad and depressing, these are 2 particular sound I choose as it will be ones similar to the ones that will be present in our game. They are sad low paced relaxing but ultimately sad sounds, the second has an upbeat end to it, but in general these sound will help us portray the emotions of the character in game through the medium of sound. They are very similar sounds to that of The Last of Us, where the emotional involvement with the character is great and really hooks you in.

In summary, my research question was supported by the journal, I found that quick tempo allows people to become more energised and that slower paced makes them feel less motivated. Classical music helps them feel relaxed, rock pumps people up, and so on. This information is essential to our game that we will be making in the New Year. As it will feed directly into the game, we will place classical music in the forest part of the level, to make the player more calm, with slow tempo, as it will give the player the impression that they can just relax there, the tempo will be quick paced in the cave to raise anxiety, this will work because it will go from low calming tempo to quick paced tempo in an instant. The lake will be calming music too.

Giving the fact that we are exposed to music on a daily bases whether we choose to or not, music plays a huge role in our lives, it is a huge thing in advertising too, even a shopping centre used music to get more customers to buy items, as it gave them feelings of elation, and when someone is happier they are likely to buy more, that is why they play Christmas songs around Christmas, because it makes people happier. The impact of sound on mood is quite big, and that can be utilised in many different ways, even to determine someone’s personality.

The sources I used for this project proved to be very useful, they provide me with all the information that I needed for my research topic, Music directs your mood, by Marjolein D. van der Zwaag, Eindhoven: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2012 – Proefschrift was perhaps the most useful, it provided a user test similar to the one that I was planning, the results of the said test was similar to my findings when I tested my sound out on people.

All the references I used supported my theory that mood is affected by music, they all gave insights into what music has an effect on the mood of a person in different ways, https://prezi.com/d4cidgyei6-c/do-different-music-genres-affect-your-mood/, This source gave me what each genre has what effect on a person, while How Music changes your mood gave me what effect the music has on the brain and why that has an effect on a person’s emotions. The other sources gave me a few facts each that I found to be useful.

I did find numerous other sources which I thought would be useful including a few YouTube videos, but they were far from good, the last resources on my list, listening to classical, pop, and metal music: An investigation of mood by Christopher Rea, Pamelyn Mac Donald and Gwen Carnes, had some potential, but in actuality what they were trying to discover was proven in many other of the sources I found and proven with better and more accurate results.

Effects of Musical Tempo and Mode on Arousal, Mood, and Spatial Abilities by GABRIELA HUSAIN, WILLIAM FORDE THOMPSON, & E. GLENN SCHELLENBERG, University of Toronto - http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/Husain.pdf

What is music by Jim Paterson - http://www.mfiles.co.uk/what-is-music.htm

It is all in the mix: The interactive effect of music tempo and mode on in-store sales by Klemens M. Knoferle & Eric R. Spangenberg & Andreas Herrmann & Jan R. Landwehr -http://www.academia.edu/1151588/It_is_all_in_the_mix_The_interactive_effect_of_music_tempo_and_mode_on_in-store_sales

Music directs your mood, by Marjolein D. van der Zwaag, Eindhoven: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2012 - Proefschrift - http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/gmw/2012/m.d.van.der.zwaag/Completethesis.pdf

Music and Mood by healthychildren.org powered by paediatricians - http://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/emotional-wellness/Pages/Music-and-Mood.aspx

How Music Changes Your Mood - http://examinedexistence.com/how-music-changes-your-mood/

Music Perception, Autism, Music, and the Therapeutic potential of Music in Alexithymia. Rory and Heaton, 2010.

The Surprising Science Behind What Music Does To Our Brains By Beth Cooper - http://www.fastcompany.com/3022942/work-smart/the-surprising-science-behind-what-music-does-to-our-brains

https://prezi.com/d4cidgyei6-c/do-different-music-genres-affect-your-mood/

Listening to classical, pop, and metal music: An investigation of mood by Christopher Rea, Pamelyn Mac Donald and Gwen Carnes - http://academic.emporia.edu/esrs/vol46/rea.pdf

Images

User testing prototype - http://7komi.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/music-and-your-emotions-survey-results/ - http://7komi.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/graph-21.png

Brain image - http://d2officedesign.com/news/music-at-work - http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2012-11-07/etc_musicspread46_950pop.jpg

Tempo – http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2013/12/3022942-inline-i-4-music-and-our-brains.png

Personality - http://c.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-large/inline/2013/12/3022942-inline-i-2-music-and-our-brains.png

Sources for Music:

Dance:

Music myself and a fellow student made for previous assignments (Patryk Stanclik)

https://soundcloud.com/paddypl/team-effort-menu-music

https://soundcloud.com/paddypl/team-effort-desert-track

Rock:

https://www.freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/85422/

https://www.freesound.org/people/bigjoedrummer/sounds/209455/

Classical

https://www.freesound.org/people/oymaldonado/sounds/252800/

https://www.freesound.org/people/StrangerEight/sounds/148695/

I would like to thanks all of the people who provided information for this research, including the many online sources, whose information I used and accredited in the references section, but also Peter Morris and Enda Finn, for weeks of really helpful feedback into my research approach and ideas on how to improve the experiment and what direction to take.