Amy Gudino

De Piero
Writing 2
4 November 2015
How Music Rocks the Mind
Although the world is inherently diverse, not only by groups but from individual
to individual there are certain aspects of everyone and their lives that people have in common,
like music. Everyone listens to music and even have their favorite tastes, genres, songs, and
artists. Everyones taste is different but everyone listens to what they listen to because of the
emotions that may accompany that song or its relatability. The effects music has on people and
their emotions is vast and has been studied by many academic fields and analyzed by nonacademic fields as well, due to their distinctions in genre and specific points they want to prove
there will be both similarities and difference between the researchers.
Psychological researchers studied the use of music as a form of therapy as done in the
academic article, Music as a Therapy for Depression in Women: A Theoretical Perspective by
T.A. Jamabo and I.R. George in which they were thoughtful of the factors such as using women
as depression is found more often in women than in men (Jamabo, George). On the other hand,
film study researchers studied the manner in which music involved in a movie scene amplifies
emotion and sentimentality for the viewer into a movie scene as they mentioned in the academic
article Music Influences Ratings of the Effect of Visual Stimuli by Waldie E. Hanser and Ruth
E. Mark. Because musics impact on the human mind is such a popular topic it is also seen in
non-academic articles to talk about how it impacts culture. As a result, there has emerged nonacademic articles such as the research article Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music

by Selwyn Duke. Regardless through which discipline someone analyzes it, music is proven to
be a very powerful form of influence due to the emotion it instills, both on the human mind and
the human race as a whole. Music and the impact it has on peoples emotions and minds can be
ambiguous however each of these articles proved that musics affect on people in their own way
and, because it is such a broad topics, in a more specific approach, whether it be how it may treat
depression, add more sentiment to a movie scene, or define an entire culture or era.
To help better further the evidence that music can effectively ignite emotion in the human
mind that can alter behavior and thoughts, in order to do so all three articles had to use tactic of
persuasion, meaning that the three articles shared some conventions. For example, all three
articles used ethos by quoting professionals, resulting in adding more validity to their argument.
They all share a pedantic tone, to be presented to the audience as knowledgeable. However,
although they share an organized structure, there is a distinction between the academic articles
and the non academic article, due to the fact that they are academic articles it must be set in a
way that will allow the reader and other researchers, their audience, to be able to see that they did
every part that needs to be done for an academic research paper. Whereas, the non academic
article labels sections so that it can easy to follow and to make his point clear, and at the same
time have a plethora of evidence to back up his argument.
When writing, authors use different moves in hopes that the move will instill a very
specific reaction from their audience. The academic articles use something called the Scholarly
Structure they use the conventional structure that is used for an academic paper so that people
will recognize its prestige the use of the jargon of their field is a convention of this structure as
well. All three articles also use the Name Dropping move, this involves the author quoting
scholars of a certain field so that the audience are able to see that they are getting their points

from intellectually reliable sources. In the case of the academic articles the Name Dropping
move is used to prove that research and that other professionals in their field back their opinion.
As for the Dukes article, Influential Beats he uses the Name Dropping move to add validity
to his piece, because it is a non-academic article his audience may seems he is a less trustworthy,
but if he has professionals that back up his opinion then the audience is more likely to see him as
a credible source.
In Jambo and Georges academic piece about music therapy they use Conceptual
Defining with Purpose which is the author defining the concept in a particular way that will
help them prove their point. In this case, because their study was based on women who are
depressed in Nigeria they assured that contrary to popular belief in Nigeria, depression is not
something you can just snap out of, but rather it is a mental disorder (Jamabo, George). They
chose this group due to the fact that women are more often more susceptible to depression and
because they were countering the belief of a whole culture using mental research, and were able
to prove that both music and depression involve the mind and can even have some control over it
due to the results that there was a change in behavior after the therapy.
Concept Organizer is a move in which Duke as a well as Hanser and Mark use in their
pieces, however function in different ways in the different pieces. For Hanser and Marks article,
they use Concept Organizer which is when they use other disciplines and subjects and
separated them by labeled sections to prove a larger point. This helps show their amount of
research and build on a lot of evidence. In the case of Dukes article Influential Beats, because
his was not an academic article he had to prove that he had a valid opinion, which involved him
expanding on different topics and disciplines to show his knowledge. Dukes use of it is arguably
the most effective use of this move because mentioning where a researcher found their

information is a convention for the academic articles, but when Dukes article mentions the
philosopher Plato and the legend Beethoven it demonstrates the amount of research he had done,
and how his argument of musics impact on culture is timeless. His audience are people who
want to know more about what music does to people and people who are not convinced of
musics significance so he has to prove his validity because hes not a professional and show his
research.
All of the articles are structured in a way to support and further prove the main point.
Most of the data that the articles contained consisted of quoting other professionals. Hanser and
Marks article included the conceptual definition of music as a stimulus but not one that is quite
understood of how it changes so much throughout the years or how it is such a natural instinct to
know how to react to sounds, like the way infants already possess the ability to recognize the
beat in music, (Hanser,Mark). The article also elaborates on the operational definition of
musics effects, which works as the basis of the article as a whole. It builds on this point and uses
different perspectives one of the main disciplines was through the study of film. They measured
the effect music had on a scene based off peoples reactions to the scene with music versus
without music. Another means they used to measure was the manner in which the type of music
that is playing in the background affects the likability of a character. The researchers were able to
see that emotion rose with the presence of music in film scenes. Another finding was that music
added mood to scenes that without music seemed more neutral. When music is added it
dramatizes the scene and ignites a mood between characters and on the audience
(Hanser,Mark). They also found sadder music tends to make a character more likeable because
the audience is more likely to empathize with the character (Hanser, Mark).

In contrast, the article that focused on the discipline of psychology, Jamabo and Georges
operational definition of music is used to help prove their point of how effective it is for music
therapy, so they measure the effects of music by observing how it changed the mood of
depressed patients and the progress the therapy made to their recovery. Both of the academic
articles use operational definitions to help prove that This is also true for Dukes article but he
does it through a small scope of how it affects an individual and how that can in turn affect a
whole culture. Thus it measures it by how that generation, person, or culture feels in comparison
to the music that is being listened to. This can perhaps be seen by the possible correlation
between the emergence of rock n roll as a music genre and teenage rebellion a new behavior in
the 1950s. Conceptual definition puts the audience in the mentality the author wants them to be
in and the operational definition helps the writer prove the validity of the conceptual one and
works as a basis of their evidence.
Scholarly articles and articles seen in pop culture have their advantages and
disadvantages. As for scholarly articles, they are taken seriously on sight due to their structure
and academic jargon. The audience observes its professional research conventions and comes off
and they give it validity and respect. As for an article in pop culture there exists a need to
persuade the audience that the points are valid and that the writer does obtain knowledge of their
topic because the writers knowledge and position is questionable considering the lack of
position.
Academic articles must also follow a certain structure which can be an advantage and
disadvantage, no, they will not have to worry about deciding on a structure but it can take away a
lot of creativity due to the rules that are placed on the expected appearance of the piece. As for
pop culture pieces, they have much more room to be creative and allow their piece to look any

way they feel it would work best. This allows the writer to play with structure in a way that can
help further prove his point, for example, Dukes structure allowed a kind of build up effect and
its length proved he had a lot to argue. Whereas for the academic article they proved the point in
a different way in each section as conventions expect. Furthermore, pop culture articles are able
to use any kind of vocabulary which broadens their audience, which means people from different
ages, cultures, or social groups are more obtainable. Which can be a challenge for the academic
articles, because the conventions of academic articles require a certain structure and the need to
use jargon from said field which can be intimation.
Dukes article is given more room to build on other topics although the title implied his
article is about the effect on culture he also discussed the change of music through generations
and the effect on the individual and mentioned how the emotions in music is what causes theses
effects, and even used junk food jingles as evidence. Academic articles can make pop culture
references and it can be effective, but their tone needs to stay didactic and professional. However
using pop culture references does allow them to connect with the audience and can lower
intimidation while still maintaining professionalism, but the line can be thin as they need to
maintain professional and connections with the audience need to stay minimal.
Music is powerful and has been proven to impact humans in a vast number of ways,
which makes it important for people to know how it affects them. It is a part of everyday life for
people main it vital that people know how music plays a role on who they are and how they feel
and that it is not only a means of entertainment but also a release and sharing of emotions. Both
academic and non-academic article have their moves and those are important to take note of as
well. Understanding rhetorical messages is essential to help [people] become informed readers
(Carroll). Furthermore, it also helps evaluate the ethics of messages, and their effects on the

individual and society in general. (Carroll). No matter how theyre topic was trying to be proven,
it can be concluded that the impact music has on the human mind is vast and deep after
examining the evidence presented in these articles.

Works Cited
Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis." (n.d.): n.
pag. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Duke, Selwyn. "Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music." Influential Beats: The
Cultural Impact of Music. The New America, 9 Jan. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Hanser, Waldie E., and Ruth E. Mark. "Music Influences Ratings of the Effect of Visual
Stimuli." Psychological Topic, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.
Jamabo, T. A., and I. R. George. "Music as a Therapy for Depression in Women: A Theoretical
Perspective." International Journal of Academic Research, n.d. Web. 30 Oct.
2015.

Writing 2 Feedback Matrix for WP2

Table of Textual Features

Did Not Meet

Thesis Statement
Use of Textual

Expectations

Evidence from Genres

Use of Course

Readings

Met Expectations

Exceeded
Expectations

Analysis
Organization/Structure
Attention to
Genre/Conventions
and Rhetorical Factors
Sentence-level Clarity,

Mechanics, Flow
Gudino,
Other Comments
Music is the best -- I think you picked a great topic and I was
really interested in what you found out here. To be honest,
though, I wasnt ever really sure what you were arguing. I
think thats the first goal for improving this piece. Here are
some ideas:

- I need more of an argument here. Move past describing and

get to evaluating -- try to pinpoint the so what? of this
assignment as much as possible.

-Include a lot more analysis of the kinds of data/evidence

these different sources are using and what kinds of RQs
theyre asking. Consider some of the big pictures questions
here that get at how do these different disciplines approach
this topic from different perspectives? What was the study
about? What questions did they ask? What data did they

gather? How do the ways in which these researchers went

about studying this topic differ from the other
authors/researchers, and what does it suggest in terms of the
importance they're placing on their methods?

-Think about what kind of structure/organization would be

best suited for your argument -- to me, you seemed to be kind
of jumping around a lot

-Consider working in moves earlier on and adding in more

of them -- I thought that your section on moves was very good

-This is a tough one, but try inserting more of your own

voice into this. Youve got a great one from what Ive read
in your blog and heard in class -- if you can find a way to
make this more of a Gudino piece about how different
disciplines/sources analyze music rather than just a how
different disciplines/sources analyze music I think itd make
it even better.

-Work in the course readings. Use them to help you use the
language of the course and to develop your argument.

I know this probably isnt the grade that you want, but youve

got lots of ways you can improve it for your portfolio, and
Im expecting you to do just that. Keep up the hard work,
Gudino, I really appreciate it.

Z
6/10