For centuries now, music has played a very important role in the world. It’s a way for people to express themselves, be entertained, listen to for pleasure, etc. One thing music has always been used for is a way to motivate people. This can be seen all over the place, especially in the sporting world.
While teams warm up for games, there’s always music playing in the arena as a way to get the team fired up for the upcoming game. Another example is, when one goes to the gym, all you have to do is look around and see people running on the treadmill or lifting weights with headphones on.
Frank DeGenaro, a University alumnus said, “Music is the best way to shut out all else. You can’t control what noises are outside of your headphones, but you can control exactly what’s coming out of your iPod. This allows you to focus and find that competitive part of you. You can sit and just stare and listen to whatever pumps you up. Then you can go out on the field like an animal,” said DeGenaro, who played four years of football and baseball in high school.
“It drives me when I need an extra push– the song ‘Carry On the Flame’ by Santino Noir has lyrics that push me when I feel like I can’t quite push to the end of my run. Not only that, the music itself lets me get distracted from worries and I just use it to pace out my runs. Running for an hour and a half would be really boring if I didn’t have some good tunes to listen to,” said Pikaard.
Dr. Janice Stapley, Chair of the psychology department on campus, has been studying music and emotion regulation among emerging adults.
Her study is titled “Music as a Window into College Students’ Emotion Regulation and its relationship to their Self-Efficacy and College Adjustment.” She found that the music people listen to depends on their mood. “The idea that music is purposely used to regulate your mood has obvious implications for the gym, as you want to perk yourself up, but when you’re irritated you want to listen to something that will bring you back down,” said Stapley.
Stapley added that when you’re working out you aren’t going to listen to something slow; you’ll listen to something upbeat.
People are going to continue to use music to motivate themselves, whether it’s working out at the gym, getting ready for a sporting event, or driving to work. Music allows people to bring out their emotions and certain music allows you to boost an emotion that is being experienced at that time, which is why music is such a big part of the sporting world.
Senior Jonathan Nuzzolo, a music industry major, echoed this idea when he discussed how he uses music.
“It [music] gets me going in the zone, helps me focus, and it always changes your attitude and acts as an amplifier that can make your mood better or worse, so it definitely helps,” said Nuzzolo.
So the next time you find yourself needing to be put into the right mind set, take out your iPod, put on your headphones and let the music take you to where you have to be.
