Can Music Really Affect Your Mood?

Most people listen to music at some point almost every single day, but can it actually affect your mood? The answer is yes, it absolutely can!

According to Healthline, there is research currently that suggest music can reduce anxiety levels and boost happiness. There is even evidence that sad music can lift your mood.

Music is a large part of human life and how we communicate and perceive different things.

For many centuries different researchers have wondered that type of therapeutic effects music might have, if any at all.

According to a study from  PLOS ONETrusted Source, most listeners actually get pleasure and comfort from listening to sad music. However, the study also found that some people feel negative feelings like grief when listening to sad music.

A lot of people listen to sad music as a form of therapy. Most who do listen to it gain comfort and a place to regulate from it.

Tuomas Eerola is a professor of music cognition at Durham University and lead author in this study. “The results help us to pinpoint the ways people regulate their mood with the help of music, as well as how music rehabilitation and music therapy might tap into these processes of comfort, relief, and enjoyment," Eerola stated.

There is also research out there that is focused on how upbeat music can bring joy.

In 2013, there was a study shown in Journal of Positive Psychology about this upbeat music. It concluded that a majority of people who listened to upbeat music would have a boost in happiness in as little as two weeks. The upbeat music would also help to improve their mood anytime they listened to it.

Riley Green is one of country music's most talked about up-and-coming superstars. He released a new album dubbed Ain't My Last Rodeo on October 13. The 12-track project is named after a song on the album, "My Last Rodeo." The singer wrote the song following one of the final conversations he had with his late Grandaddy Buford while in the hospital.

Riley attributes his Grandaddy for his musical appreciation, education, and inspiration. Riley said, "I was fortunate enough to grow up within about three miles of my grandparents, so they were a huge part of my growing up and who I am—and this album is a lot of who I am. This is really the first time I was able to really take my time, write, and record songs that really felt like a cohesive album."

He added, "I'm really proud of it and want to thank the fans for all of their encouragement—I hope y'all enjoy it."

Green also has a song with Jelly Roll on the project as well as a cover of Tim McGraw's "Damn Country Music."

The new album also includes Riley's current single, "Different 'Round Here (feat. Luke Combs)." He told me of being on Luke's stadium tour in 2023, "I certainly learned a lot. It's a different show. You know, I think I am a lot more drawn to the smaller acoustic venues and the more intimate setting. It's completely different, so there is a lot I had to learn to fill up a big stage like that and to appeal to fifty-thousand people."

He concluded, "I definitely learned a lot about a live show, and it really put me in front of a lot of new potential fans. It was a great opportunity. I think me and Luke have a lot of the same fans."

As Green's star continues to rise in country music, we gathered five songs of his that we think everyone should know.

This song was released in June of 2018 as his debut single and the first from Riley's debut studio album, Different 'Round Here. The song is a story about various women's impact on the narrator's life. The music video for the song was filmed with the help of screaming fans at a club show Green was performing at in his home state of Alabama.

Riley [inlink id="riley-green-jelly-roll-team" text="told me of the collaboration"] with one of country music's most popular guys, "I wrote the song 'Copenhagen and a Cadillac.' It was just a fun title and a fun song, kind of light-hearted. I really wasn't planning on cutting it for this record, and then I did a show with Jelly Roll somewhere, and I thought of him when I came across that song, so I texted it to him, and he called me immediately and loved the song and wanted to be a part of it."

He added, "It worked out great, and I think it's a collaboration that I think probably people aren't expecting, so I'm excited about people hearing that."

This song went all the way to number one on the country charts and was co-written by Rhett and his father, Rhett Akins. Thomas suggested adding Riley Green as a duet partner because the two had become friends after hunting together. The song is about a man who wants to consume alcohol instead of tending to his everyday chores.

Green told me how the collaboration with Combs came about, "I wish I had a really cool story about it; I just texted him and said, 'You want to be a part of this song?' It was always a really big song for me, and the fans have always screamed that song to me at shows when I play it. I told him I thought it might be the next single, and fortunately for me, he wanted to be a part of it."

The song that brought Green to the country music dance. Riley had written the song and performed it on tour before adding it to the tracklist of his debut album. He was persuaded to record the song by Brad Paisley. The song is a tribute to Green's grandfathers, who are also credited as co-writers on the song.