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).
