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Music affects our lives because we all listen to different kinds of music. For example, there are people who listen to sad music and it effects them emotionally. Music also affects our lives when we are happy, we tend to listen to music that keeps us happy. When we have a special event or sports game and there's music it pumps us up and gets us excited. It is said that music helps us study and concentrate.

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There have been many studies attempting to figure out just how music affects the human mind. For example, why do different people like different kinds of music, what parts of the brain are activated and if said parts are affected more or less by different kinds of music, and others.

Some of these questions have remained unanswered, and might stay that way for a while. One thing, however, is for certain: music does affect our daily lives.

Just look at the simple facts. Most people listen to music. If someone doesn't, they're sometimes viewed in a strange way. How could you not listen to music?

Music affects our emotions. When we listen to sad songs, we tend to feel a decline in mood. When we listen to happy songs, we feel happier. Upbeat songs with energetic riffs and fast-paced rhythms (such as those we hear at sporting events) tend to make us excited and pumped up.

With all this in mind, I sent out a survey to the students of Basehor-Linwood High School, asking some simple questions about their music taste and how music makes them feel. Studying these results show some interesting facts.

When asked about their listening habits, mixed results were found in accordance to the amount of time spent listening to music on a daily basis.

About 22.2 percent of people said that they listen to music between one to two hours everyday, where another 22.2 percent said they listen at least five hours a day.

The category of two to three hours a day sees about 18.4 percent of people in the school, and three to four hours meets a close second to that, at 16.5 percent.

Only 11 percent of people listen to less than an hour's worth of music every day, and even less listen to four to five hours a day; about 9.5 percent.

It seems that there isn't really a happy medium. Either people listen to music a little, or they listen to music all the time. Music takes different standpoints in different people's lives, and it matters more or less to one person than it does another.

A majority of people listen to music in the car, as well as at home; about 90 percent of all those studied for each. Around 71 percent of people here in the school also listen in their classrooms. Both the hallway and the lunchroom receive substantially less; about 37 percent and 25 percent.

It seems that music helps us concentrate and study as well. Out of those studied, 88.5 percent of people said that they listen to music when they study, work on homework, and other activities such as that. That leaves on 11.5 percent of people who don't.

It's no surprise that most people (69 percent) listen to pop music. Pop literally stands for popular. 55.2 percent of all people attending BLHS listen to rock and rap. It's also not surprising to hear that 46.6% of people listen to alternative and indie music. Over half of our students listen to country, at 52.3 percent.

Some genres that didn't hit the chart with full force are funk, jazz, classic, punk, dubstep, and metal. Not one of these, with the exception of classical (at 28.7 percent), crossed the 25 percent line.

No matter what people listen to, there seems to be a common consensus as to why they listen. It seems that genres that have a fast paced, upbeat, and catchy rhythm (like pop, rap, etc.) are attractive to those who do sports, or at least, those who are looking to get pumped up. Rock also stands to achieve this goal. Most people agree that music just makes them happy. They can 'get into a mood' based of the style of the song they're listening too. I must say that I agree.

Personally, I listen to rock and metal, pop punk, and acoustics, that is, if I must limit my choices. I always listen to rock and a whole lot of metalcore. To get pumped up, I listen to rock and metal, sometimes more '80s metal than modern. To help when I'm feeling down, I listen to acoustic and pop punk. When angry, I listen to metalcore and sometimes stuff even heavier than that.

Overall, here's the final conclusion I could come up with; music is simply a force that cannot be explained. It messes with our heads, it makes us feel different emotions, sometimes even physically changes us. Music unites us. Some of those surveyed said that they've had friendships established based off music, as have I. In the end, we know that music has a wide range of effects on us. Honestly, maybe we should leave it at that.

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There have been many studies attempting to figure out just how music affects the human mind. For example, why do different people like different kinds of music, what parts of the brain are activated and if said parts are affected more or less by different kinds of music, and others.

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Music is said to be popular  because it is responsible for the emtions of the brain. Our brains find peace with music. Music is also popular because it helps us keep positive memories if we listen to a song that reminds us of positive things.

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Pop music makes up the largest part of consumed music today. It's radio, tv, in the grocery store you shop & it's blasting from the car that passes you on street on your way to work. And this isn't something that's only happens in your city: Adele's music is as famous in Beijing as it's in London.
So why is pop music so ... popular? Is it mere exposure effect, it's mostly upbeat and catchy character or are there more factors accountable for it's high praise?
First of all let's define pop music: Pop music is a genre which was derived from rock and roll in the Western world around 1950s. It's not to be confused with popular music which describes all music that is popular. But yes, pop music is popular music and it appears there is scientific explanation for it's popularity.

Several studies have shown that the parts of brain responsible for emotions and especially our brain's reward centers respond more actively to a piece of the music that it's already acquainted with than to an yet unfamiliar song, even if the latter fits the person's musical taste far better.
Really, this is no surprise. Humans love repetition. We feel more safe and comfortable interacting with something we are already familiar with; such experience is more compelling and enjoyable for the majority. Repetition invites the listener into the music as active participant - It doesn't take long until one's tapping the feet following the rhythm of the song.
Repetition factor plays an important role in two ways: First, repetition is a characteristic trait for a music in general, but more so in case of pop music. Additionally to that pop music is the one genre that we are most exposed to. We assumed that we hear a song everywhere because it's popular when actually it's exactly the other way around: a song is popular because it's played everywhere.

The context of exposure matters as much as the scale of it. Humans are complicated creatures, our brains perform millions of operations every second without us being aware. As a result of this we experience feelings and make memories. If you hear a certain song every time you are out with friends having fun you'll start to associate the particular song with positive feelings. The more often a song is played the better chance it has to stick to one of your positive memories and become a hit. This is a trick music industry uses daily. So next time you hear a particular song for the 15th time day, know you might be manipulated into liking it but as long as it's making you feel good, what's the difference really?

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Why is pop music so ... popular? - DEA Music and Art

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Pop music makes up the largest part of consumed music today. It's radio, tv, in the grocery store you shop & it's blasting from the car that passes you on street on your way to work. And this isn't something that's only happens in your city: Adele's music is as famous in Beijing as it's...

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Music is important to society because it helps understand the audience learn new things. Its also important because it helps with communication and goes beyond the words. It helps others relate and engage to the powerful meaning of music.

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Music Makes Our Lives Magical and Meaningful

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Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions - including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. The development of recording techniques in the latter half of the 20th century has revolutionized the extent to which most people have access to music.

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The Powerful Young Gallery Owner Shaping L.A'S Art Scene

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The Powerful Young Gallery Owner Shaping L.A'S Art Scene

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In this article, Michelle Papillion explains the powerful outcomes in art. She talks about the great things art can do for the community. According to Los Angeles Times, "A predominantly Black neighborhood with the second-highest property crime rate in the city" says that the neighborhood is bad. Although Papillion is trying to make changes in society and believes there is no such thing as a bad neighborhood. Fordjour believes Papillion has power and thinks thats a different way to speak up.

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Boy, can artist Derek Fordjour remember the first time he met Michelle Papillion. They were in a room full of big names and up-and-comers at the estate of a very important Black artist. Papillion stood up in her purple pants and great shoes and proclaimed: "I run a gallery in the hood."

Since then, Papillion's gallery has shifted quarters, but not too far, and today you can find it below a neon sign - PAPILLION, it spells, in flamingo-pink capitals - in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. Nearby, there's Jamaican food, African-style silhouette murals and a whole lot of dudes drumming in the parking lot for a Friday afternoon. Maybe it's an unlikely birthplace for the next great renaissance of African-American art. Or maybe it's the perfect one. Whatever the case, Papillion's ambitions recall nothing less than the Harlem of 90 years ago. Her shows, which feature the work of Black artists on the rise, already draw some of the most powerful collectors in the world. "We're in the beginning of it," she tells me when I visit.

She looks weirdly fashionable in her oversize gray hoodie, hoop earrings, black pants and all black sneakers - even the Reading Rainbow mug she's clutching seems somehow cool. Papillion isn't the only reason that New York and London bigwigs like Jeffrey Deitch and Jay Jopling have come calling on the L.A. art scene, of course. Los Angeles looks a lot more like Brooklyn nowadays, with artists going at giant canvases in abandoned warehouses and an accompanying gentrification. But art in the City of Angels has a different kind of aesthetic - bigger pieces, bolder colors, outdoor installations - and a more inclusive, less elitist vibe. "People need to feel comfortable in this environment," Papillion says.

To me, Papillion's gallery recalls W.E.B. DuBois' dream for Black drama: It would be by, for and near African-Americans - though it'd be inaccurate to suggest that Papillion is only for Black audiences. Visitors are greeted by one of Fordjour's canvases, featuring faceless Black men lined up as targets in a carnival game. Two panels of a Black man at an ATM cover an entire wall of Papillion's office; it's the work of Haitian-born, New York-raised, L.A.-based artist Andy Robert. A collage of magazine photos by Suné Woods (formerly a photographer), stressed and manipulated, hangs with a texture like overlapping tissue papers. "Curatorially she's doing all mediums," Shelley Holcomb, cofounder of Curate L.A., says, with "really young artists that are subsequently gaining attention internationally." Indeed, the day I visit, she's just met with a couple of collectors from Tokyo.

In some ways, Papillion's work runs parallel to that of Theaster Gates, the South Side Chicago revitalist, in whose property she made that declaration about the gallery in the hood. Making the space around her beautiful is Papillion's art project. "There are no galleries on this side of town owned by people of color. Period." To do good for a community is an art in and of itself, she says. And there's much good to be done in Leimert Park, a predominantly Black neighborhood with the second-highest property crime rate in the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Papillion is protective, even possessive, of the dozen Black artists she's shepherded to wider renown. Sometimes she is downright political. In Artforum, in the pages where owners typically advertise upcoming exhibitions, she took out an ad that said, "Dear Art World, Let's End Police Terrorism #blacklivesmatter." Last Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Papillion underwrote a colorful float, designed by one of her artists, to represent the Crenshaw neighborhood, near Leimert Park. One of the sayings plastered on it was "Black money matters." It's rare of a gallerist to be that explicit - and loud - about her politics.

But activism was in the water she drank, growing up in Oakland. Her mom was an educator, and her dad an architect. At Howard, she studied the classics at first, learning Latin, Greek and Egyptian (yes, she can read all three and waves off my impressed expression). She joined an Egyptian art class, and in terms of falling in love with visual arts, that was "the tip of an iceberg for me," she says.

It's not easygoing, of course. Finding emerging artists is like winning the lottery, and turning unknowns into collectors' darlings takes an eye, nurturing, skill, advocating, branding - as well as time and justice. Of the 10 people on the Most Powerful Art Dealers list that Forbes put out in 2012, none were women of color. But Papillion, has already come far, says Fordjour, who remembers coming up with her: "We were all at this scrappy space at the same time," he says. Things have changed: "Now people know her name when she comes into the room, and that's a different way to advocate."

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The Powerful Young Gallery Owner Shaping L.A.'s Art Scene

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Boy, can artist Derek Fordjour remember the first time he met Michelle Papillion. They were in a room full of big names and up-and-comers at the estate of a very important Black artist. Papillion stood up in her purple pants and great shoes and proclaimed: "I run a gallery in the hood."

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Islamic and Arab art institute opening in New York aims to challenge stereotypes

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Islamic and Arab art institute opening in New York aims to challenge stereotypes

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In this article, Al-Thani talks about how Muslim and Arab artists come together. New York is showing works by Indian artists that use Islamic decorative arts all together meaning to represent  and political borders. Al-Thani said, "It made sense to me there had to be an art and culture institute that represents the Arab and Islamic region, as there isn't really one here in New York" meaning that it is part of all the community.

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Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani noticed something missing in New York City's cultural institutions - there is the Swiss Institute, the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, but there isn't anything to represent Arab Muslim artists, until now.

Al-Thani, who is part of the ruling family of Qatar, is opening up New York City's first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art on 4 May.

The 2,500 sq ft space will host exhibitions with Muslim and Arab artists, foster interfaith dialogue with public discussions and will be home to a new bookstore. According to Al-Thani, who is the founding director, he wanted to set straight some Muslim stereotypes.

"If we dig into how Arabs and Muslims are stereotyped, they go way back," said Al-Thani. "It made sense to me there had to be an art and culture institute that represents the Arab and Islamic region, as there isn't really one here in New York."

Even with Islamophobia and Trump's recent Muslim ban, Al-Thani has been working towards the institute since 2014. One inspiration was Orientalism, a book about Middle Eastern stereotypes written by Palestinian American cultural critic Edward Said in 1978. "Whether it was the exotic woman with the grapes or the Ottoman empire; there were always were misconceptions and stereotypes that tagged along historically," said Al-Thani. "The way it has evolved historically up until now has become more politically oriented."

The first exhibition is a four-woman group show called Exhibition 1, which is themed around Islamic architecture and geometric design. "Sacred geometry," as it's often called, is an Islamic tradition that dates back thousands of years as a universal language that can bring together divided communities.

"Our main objective is to challenge stereotypes if people have them and engage them on Islamic civilization beyond the religious context," said Al-Thani. "We are hopeful and will do everything in our capacity to see our culture is represented and open up a cross-cultural dialogue with New York City."

The artists showing include Saudi Arabian artist Dana Awartani, who creates mandala-like paintings with ancient flower motifs alongside the works of Iranian artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, who combines traditional Iranian folk art with modern abstraction.

They're also showing works by New York-based Indian artist Zarina Hashmi, who uses the Islamic decorative arts to represents political borders, and Nasreen Mohamedi, a pioneering Indian artist who changed the face of minimalism. "Her work is considered minimalist, constructivist, futurist and doesn't resemble Islamic architecture but in her diaries she speaks about how it has been such a great influence in her work," said Al-Thani. "We are hoping people see it's beyond what the eye can see."

In New York City, there are Islamic and Arab-focused art galleries such as the Iranian art dealer Leila Heller's gallery and CRG Gallery, which gave Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum her first New York solo show. "There are galleries that represent artists from the region but do they have homes institutionally?" asks Al-Thani.

He cites Here and Elsewhere, an exhibition of 45 Arab artists shown at the New Museum in 2014. "These conversations are never continued consistently and we hope to change that," he said.

This isn't the first attempt. Brooklyn real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal planned to build a Muslim cultural center in 2010, but received death threats, as it was often referred to as the Ground Zero Mosque. "There are religious centers and community-based centers across America but they're not for art," said Al-Thani. "New York City is a very welcoming place, if I didn't have New York's support, I wouldn't be doing this."

The institute will be located at 3 Howard Street in Manhattan, a temporary space until the end of July. Then, the institute will either stay or move to another location, depending on funding.

The ruling Al-Thani family has collected Arab art for decades, but that doesn't mean they're footing the bill. "A lot of people have misconceptions when they hear my family name and think my family has funded this project," said Al-Thani, "which is not true and not accurate at all."

The non-profit institute is funded by a small group of donors through a fundraising gala Al-Thani hosted last year. However, bringing on more patrons hasn't been easy.

"When you just have an idea, it's hard to get people to support you," he said. "We're hoping patrons see the importance of what we're doing. I always say, 'Wherever we are, we will exist.' A space, as important as it is, shouldn't define us. We hope to engage beyond that."
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Islamic and Arab art institute opening in New York aims to challenge stereotypes

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Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani noticed something missing in New York City's cultural institutions - there is the Swiss Institute, the Asia Society and the Jewish Museum, but there isn't anything to represent Arab Muslim artists, until now. Al-Thani, who is part of the ruling family of Qatar, is opening up New York City's first Institute of Arab and Islamic Art on 4 May.