Music altering a person's mood

How does music can alter a person's mood so quickly?

I want to find the key to this by listening to other songs in the same category. What song/tune makes you cry or feel extreme joy?

Songs that can make me cry- Howie Day, "Collide," Our Lady Peace, "Not Enough," Tracy Chapman, "Change"

They make me feel weak because they talk about what I don't have

Songs that can make me feel joy- Bowling for Soup, "Girl All the Bad Guys Want," "One Week," U2, "Original of the Series," Gavin DeGraw, "Chariot"

These songs emphasize being yourself (except the song by Bowling for Soup. That cracks me up.)

Let me restate this then.

How does music alter a person's mood?

This is a repeat of my words from an already existing thread.

Music provokes emotions. Music is incredibly powerful- as it can make us happy, excited, sad, relaxed, pumped up, etc.

Humans are sensitive to stimuli- sound, light, air/food particles and touch. Music involves the combination of sound vibrations which stimulates the audiotory centre of the brain via the ear. It is similar to when we see something, our brain is stimulated, or when we smell or taste some nice food. When our brain is stimulated we evoke emotions- which is a natural mechanism to cope with the situation .

Some songs gives us the 'chills' or goose-bumps especially if it is a sad song. When music evokes a past sad emotional experience it can give you the 'chills'. For example remembering a past break-up or death. This has been an evolutionary process. Basically these emotions are caused by the release of chemicals from the brain specifically the hypothalamus region of the brain, which controls responses and changes in the internal environment of the body such as increased heart rate, temperature, sweating, gooes-bumps.

I've heard before that sad music is often in the minor key rather than the major key. It is also usually slow and quiet. Play a sad song you know- you may notice that it mimicks wails or sighs of mourning.

When you can't get a song out of your head it is usually because the song is repetitive or has an unusual time signiture. Also, sometimes the important songs to us were heard in our first 15years of our lives, and then can become annoying if you hear them too much. However for many, the impact of the song can derive from any time of your life.

Songs that get you pumped up usually have a good rythm, tempo and something that is catchy. They can also be exciting and energetic. Music that relaxes you is usually, slow and has a soothing feel to it.

[i][b]may be i can answer that , well as far as i know music like most other thngs u know {sex, drivin fast....etc etc } is a very powerful stimulant , and it triggers your hormones , that make u either feel good or touched or happy.THE way you feel is how your mind reacts , so jus loose yourself..........

What amazes me is that it does it so fast. I could be having a miserable day, listen to an upbeat song, and in 30 seconds, I'm happy (until the song ends anyway.)

Just something interesting I can remember. Once someone did an experiment with a bunch of plants. Every day for about 5 hours a certain genre of music would be played to each of three groups of plants. The category's were classical, heavy metal and pop. The classical plants grew the strongest the pop ones next and the heavy metal ones died. Each of the plants received the same sunlight, water and soil. I understand that genetics probably played a major factor but it's something I thought may be of interest...