Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Swaying Elephants: It’s Complicated


Whether you are celebrating Valentine’s Day or Anti-Valentine’s Day, music will likely help set the mood. We will get back to Anti-Valentine’s later, but first, let us explore the relationship between music and love. It is such a powerful part of the human experience, choosing the perfect playlist to play when you are with your special someone can help make your Valentine’s Day magical.

First, a little history of this lovely day. The origins of Valentine’s Day are a little muddled, but we know that it started during Roman times approximately 500 A.D. Sadly, music, flowers, and chocolates were not involved. Poets Shakespeare and Chaucer romanticized this holiday into what we know it as today. Now, here comes the music part. Shakespeare, being the incredible artist that he was, recognized how music influenced people’s emotions well before scientific research proved it. In 1853, a scientific study was conducted on elephants to search for evidence connecting music to pleasure and love. Why elephants though? Elephants have intellectual and emotional similarities to humans (Bonus science lesson). Anyway, when the elephants heard the music, they began to experience pleasure and were observed touching and swaying with one another as if moving to the beat. Finally, in 1954, Oxford published a formal study in the journal Music and Letters. People, not animals, were tested and the study discovered how music directly stimulated the thalamus gland to produce excess endorphins that can either heighten or dampen one’s mood. Since 1953, many studies have been conducted that emphasize very similar findings, from elephants to endorphins and emotions.

Now for the not so loveliness of Anti-Valentine’s Day. Anti-Valentine’s Day or Singles Awareness Day (SAD) was started in 2001 by Dustin Barnes right here in Mississippi (Bonus history lesson). Dustin started it while in high school and carried the tradition on to Mississippi State University. It became official in 2005. And here comes the music part… in 2009, musician Joseph Vincent wrote a SAD song. It explains how many people actually feel about Valentine’s Day. Of course, many artists have written hundreds of anti-love songs so you can enjoy not being a victim of Cupid’s arrow.

So, whether you are dragging out your lutes and harps, 8 tracks, mixed tapes, or downloading songs from FreegalMusic to make the perfect playlist, music is the first thing you need for the perfect Valentine’s Day (or Anti-Valentine’s Day).

0 comments: