ABSTRACT

Music has existed even before the dawn of civilization itself, it was evident in the harmony in the sounds that existed in the nature, the rustling of the trees and the rivers, the soothing chirping of the birds and the melody of buzz created by the life in the forests. As humans evolved, so did music, it gained more momentum and expanded its horizons along with the expansion of civilization. Having its humble beginning from the hollowed animal bones and twigs, as stated by Wilford (2007) University of Oxford in England reported last week that improved radiocarbon tests determined that animal bones found with the flutes were 42,000 to 43,000 years old. This is close to the time when the first anatomically modern humans were spreading into Central Europe. Hence proving that music has always been an interregnal part of our lives. But sadly with the advent of modern civilization, that is becoming more and more concerned with the monetary aspect of life, commercialization seems to have become the soul of all. And even music has not been left out of the trend; as a result music has, to some become a commodity that is churned out of the factory only for fulfilling the entertainment quotient of everyday life. Great songs are those that have attained the most success in the box-office. Therefore, some believe, that the impression music has on this generation is simply that of entertainment. My research was based on the hypothesis contrary to the statement made above. My survey investigated and proved, that even now, music has a lot to offer other than just plain entertainment and that it still meant a lot to its listeners and has actually evolved to provide mankind with a wider, newly discovered, modern benefits. ( Wilford, J. N., 2007, D4)

Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Research questions 4. Hypothesis 5. Methodology 6. Data presentation and analysis 7. Summary of research 8. Limitations 9. Conclusion 10. References 11. Appendix

INTRODUCTION:
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. Plato As clearly mentioned by one of the greatest philosophers known throughout the human history, music encompasses a wide field of physical, emotional and spiritual quotient. It would be utterly nave to label it just as a form of entertainment without digging deeper into the subject. Music, a proven by history, has time and time again played major part in uniting people to overcome oppression. At times when everyone was enveloped with fear, music gave them the power to unite and stand up for themselves. It is a natural drug for healing and lifting the spirits of thousands of sad and depressed people every day. It helps them connect emotionally with pressing issues and subject matters that otherwise remain hidden. Not only are all of its benefits just spiritual and intangible, as scientifically proven, it has various physical benefits as well. It has a huge impact on the brain development of young children, it is said to help them express themselves creatively, which is one the major problems faced at that tender age. It has other vital

medical benefits as well, which will be discussed in details further into this paper. The amount of effort that musicians and music puts forth in eradicating the world of its pains and troubles cannot, in ant wise, remain silent. The amount of awareness that music has the power to generate for social cause and oppressing issues is phenomenal. Whenever we face a major disaster, it is the musicians with their music who are the first to the rescue. As they help raise awareness for help, and as history has shown us times before, charity concerts organized by these prominent musicians are the most effective tool in generating help for the affected. All in all, music has been a faithful friend to humanity since its very inception, and its helping hand has only grown to be more and more humble in bearing gifts. But the mindless commercialization of music, only with the greed of monetary benefits in mind, has been able to create tarnish in its image. It is giving the modern society the conception that music is just another plain form of entertainment, and in some extreme cases it has also been able to create a negative image, as music and music videos with obscene images and lyrics that goes against all social and moral values are been generated to please the taste of certain sick audience, and producers are exploiting the sexual and the general curiosity of the youth population, by producing provocation material with the sole intention of profit in mind, and paying no heed to the damage it dose to the conception of music in peoples minds. Even though these negative forces are gaining in momentum, but the positives are still exists and are evident.

BACKGROUND:
As mentioned in the introduction, the aim of this research is to establish the various quotients that firmly establish the fact that music encompasses fields wider than just entertainment. To begin with, the most historically significant contribution or aspect of music is the role it played in uniting and rallying oppressed people to raise for justice. Of the vast number of examples available, the most historically significant example of this phenomenon would be the Southern Civil Rights Movement in U.S.A where music sole handedly help sustain and eventually grow the movement against racial injustice during the 1950s and the early 1960s. The most powerful song that took birth from that movement was the iconic we shall overcome, as professor Ward (2004) states, Perhaps the most celebrated of all the freedom songs is We Shall Overcome. The complex process by which this song was adopted as a kind of unofficial anthem for the movement. the song as we now know, has become a global anthem, there are very few language that the song has not been translated into. This only goes to show how powerful the song was its time of inception, as it helped one of the worlds most abused society stand up for their right. The lyrics of the song are still relevant to these days and are still able to steer up emotions within its listeners. (Ward, B., 2004,para. 2, People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s)

The more recent and relatable example for the people of Bangladesh, would be the Shabagh Movement, where the youths of the country united to stand up for what they believed in. and to keep them united and rejuvenated for more than a month, they used song to keep them awake and motivated nights after nights. A tactic that was applied by the people of this very country during the turbulent times of its war for liberation from the Pakistani forces, which is till date considered as one of the bloodiest independence ever witnessed by the world.

Even leading peace media activists Drew (2012) said that, I think the method of using art and music to involved the marginalized can be quite powerful, her experience in working for the equal rights of improvised women in Brazil has shown her that. (Drew, D., 2012, Para. 2, art and musics role in peace building)

Also the fact that music moves each and every one of us emotionally, up to a certain extent at least, cannot be denied. Hence it has the ability to affect us positively in our everyday life. It helps us escape the materialistic worries by providing us with a personal sanatorium, where we can assess the situation more deeply and sharply. It provides us with a strong sense of control, and hence makes us more confident in our everyday dealings and decision making ability. ( Top10 Benefit of Listening Music, n.d. )

Listening to music increases the Serotonin level in the humane brain, which is a type of neurotransmitter, the lack of which makes a person feel depressed. It also helps calm the sensory nerves of the human body, which helps reduce the level of anxiety, which may cause

sleeplessness or even anxiety disorder. Among other similar effects, listening to music is also known to help the brain function better by improving concentration, as famous scientist Albert Einstein once quoted, If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. All these helps the memory quotient of the brain to develop better, boosts the confidence of the individual and helps them solve problems creatively. (Oak, M., 2012, The effects of music on the mind).

Many scientist still consider music to be an evolutionary mystery, as the cause of its evolution still remains unsolved, but they altogether agree that music is actually a part of emotion of the human, it creates a social bonding and strengthens it among the fellow humans. (Boyed, R. S., 2003, the role of music in human life)

The gift of music is also proven to be very beneficial to the young children, it is said to be a universal language that all of them can relate into. It especially boosts their brain power by stimulating parts of the brain that are concerned with reading, math and emotional development. Also the result of which is improved memory system. Also getting involved with music at an early age helps the young ones to be socially more confident and the overall confidence level increases. The quality of patience in the child also increases as music requires discipline, as through the process, they learn that. And as there is no end to learning, it becomes a process of constant learning and develops the brain further and fosters creativity, (Caron, S. W., 2010, 10 ways music benefits children.)

another important aspect is the music education itself, studies have time and time again showed its importance. It is revealed that schools with music education has a overall better performance

than schools that are without music education. And music education is not only arts education, rather it encompasses mathematics and other science fields as well, as to read music you have to be fairly creative and have a good mathematical knowledge as to be able to recognize the musical notes. (Levy, D., 2010, the importance of music in schools; Fogel, H., 2007, the importance of music in education.)

music also has a vast range of medical benefits as well. Among the major physical benefits that music provides is its ability to reduce pain. Music is an effective therapy for pain, it is found that music can reduce pain by up to 21% and depression 25%, and that in some hospitals music is been used instead of anesthesia. Listening to classical music has also has the effect of lowering the blood pressure of the listener and music also serves as a heart medicine, as it si found that while listening to music the heart and the breathing rate are found to be operating at an optimum level. And latest research has further found that the phenomenon also helps increase the rate of post stroke of recovery. Not stopping there, music also gives a remedy for headaches and migranes, listeners of music faces a lower intensity of both. It aslo helps to boost up the immunity, as music creates a positive emotional experience. And as previously mentioned, music improves the intelligence, memory performance, concentration and attention in adults as well. Finally one more major benefits is that music helps better body movement and coordination by reducing muscle tension. . ( Top10 Benefit of Listening Music, n.d. )

finally the contribution of the musicians and their music in generating awareness and helping the distressed through their music cannot be ignored. It is a known fact that whenever there is a

disaster of any sort, musicians always rush to help, by organizing benefit concerts that helps generate awareness for the cause as well as generate money to help that specific cause. One of the most prominent concerts was the Concert for Bangladesh, organized by the former Beatles member George Harrision, it is considered as the mother of all charity concerts. As it single handedly made the entire world aware of the mass genocide, rape and abuse that the people of now Bangladesh were facing. Such an act was not possible in any other wise at that time. What followed was a trend that generated enough positive power through music every time a major problem occurred, music was the brave fearless voice that was always heard. The success of such an event gave birth to many other events, some of the major of which were, the Concert for the people of Kampuchea, at London, which was aimed at the injustice the Cambodian people faced at the hand of their brutal leader Khmer Rouge, then there was the Live Aid concert that also took place at London and aimed at generating help for the famine affected people of Ethiopia, it was one of the biggest concerts in terms of magnitude, viewed by over 400million people over 60 countries. Then just after 9/11 terrorist attacks, there took place the concert for New York. After the terrible tsunami took place, the concerts for Asia were organized to raise money for the countries affected by the tsunami. Live Aid concert saw the return of Bob Geldof with another noble cause of eradicating the debts of all the poor countries of the world, a message that they conveyed to the G8 leaders through music. This time the magnitude of the concert mammoth over his previous attempt. Overall it gives us an idea of the great deal of noble activisms that can be achieved through music. ( Dymond, G., 2010, benefit concerts: an abbreviated history)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
The main questions that my paper aims to evaluate are as follow. The questions aims to give the paper a direction to follow and concentrate the field as mentioned earlier, music is one of the widest fields of art, hence otherwise the objective of the paper would become scattered. Some of the questions has already been fairly strengthened through the secondary research work presented in the background section, and strong proof and reasons are achieved from there. For the other opinion related questions, a related survey has been conducted.

1. The power of music to unite and rally people and its relevance in peace and conflict resolution. 2. Positive effect on everyday life. 3. Educational benefit and benefit of music to children. 4. Medical benefits of music. 5. Charity and awareness generation.

Hypothesis: It is my expectation from the research, to find that music is not merely just a form of basic entertainment. Rather it is the widest field of art with countless benefits for mankind to attain from it. It sooths the emotional soul, gives strength to stand up for ones right/ any form of oppression, or that of a nation. It even transcends into the physical boundaries by proving to be of vital importance in ones development. Altogether it stands as a strong and faithful friend of humanity and cannot be degraded as just another form of entertainment.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
To find the answers for my questions, I devised two major paths. Firstly to conduct a survey target to the general population, including musicians, to answer some of my question. And go through various articles, journals, blogs and various other credible online resources. The survey consisted of 31 participants, of which 10 were musicians. And for my secondary research I went through an array 40 various articles, of which 16 proved credential enough to be useful in my research.

DATA PRESENTATION.
As mentioned in the research question section, my research to establish whether music is just another form of entertainment or not, concentrates on the five main questions. For the primary research, the questioner was designed in the best fitted manner to establish the result of those questions. The relevant questions were designed in the most efficient and accurate known format, where the respondents were asked to rate their opinion on a scale of one to five. This reduces the time taken to complete the survey, thus getting better result from the respondent as it is less straining to answer the questions, and also it makes the data analysis much more easier and accurate. With the scaling: (1=highly disagree, 2=moderately disagree, 3=neutral, 4=moderately agree, 5=highly agree)

1. The power to unite and rally people an relevance in peace and conflict resolution.

Question: can music help people overcome fear and arise to face injustice, despotic rulers, etc.?

7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00 musician non-musicians

As we can see from the graph that the general trend of the answer is that people mostly agree with the question, that music can encourage people to overcome fear and stand up for themselves. And as we can see that this feeling is much stronger among the members of the musician community. Yet the answer is same for both the cases.

Question 2.

Songs aired by Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra were a source of great inspiration and encouragement to the people during the War of Liberation. Have you heard any of those songs? If yes, how would you express your feelings?

10.00 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00

musician non-musician

As we can see from the graph that there is absolutely no musicians that believe that the songs are not relevant any more. Even though there are people who believe that the songs does not mean anything anymore, but the maximum number of people still believe that the songs still have historical importance. And once again the trend is much stronger with the musicians, and most of them believe that the songs are still important and that it give them a sense of being in those troublesome and courageous times, spiritually.

Positive effect in every day life. Question 1 A song can make one happy when you are gloomy.

highly agree

moderately agree non-musicians musician moderately disagree

netrul

highly disagree 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00

As evident from the graph, both the musicians and the non-musicians strongly believe that the songs have a very powerful emotional effect on us, as it can inflict a change in our emotional state. The majority of the people agrees to this fact.

Question 2 Can music help people overcome depression?

highly agree moderately agree netrul moderately disagree highly disagree 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 non-musicians musician

Although most of the musicians agree to this question, but it seems that the majority of the nonmusicians are not on the same track, a reason for this may be that they think while depressed, listening to music will make them more depressed. But it depends on the type of music that one hears. Hens still keeping in accord with the hypothesis. Question 3 Do you agree that some music helps, especially youngsters, to be socially more responsive and confident?

highly agree moderately agree netrul moderately disagree highly disagree 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 non-musicians musician

As we can see, that even though there are people of the general non-musician population who disagrees with this fact, but the majority of all the people still believes that it does bring about a change in the youth.

Educational benefits and the benefits for children. Question 1 Music makes learning basic things like counting, etc, much more easily for children.

10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 musician

musician non-musicians

Both the graphs are slanted towards the right, or are skewed to the left, meaning that the population mean or average lies towards the right. Therefore most of the people agrees with the question, that music does help children learn faster.

Question 2 Students should be taugh music as subject at schools, due to its proven learning and development skills.

8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 musician musician non-musicians

This graph has also a similar case, as the population is skewed towards the left so most of the people agree that music should be taught at schools. But the trend is much stronger with the musician community.

Medical benefits Question 1 Music, especially slow music helps release stress.

10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 musician

musician non-musicians

Although there are few people who do not agree that music can help release stress, they think that rather loud music can help release stress, yet for both the samples, it is safe to say that the majority of the people believe that it is effective in releasing stress. Question 2 Music distracts pain, both physical and psychological.

8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 musician musician non-musicians

Once again the trend in answer is similar to the previous question. Most of the people believes that it is able to distract pain, which is also a proven fact, as we saw in the background section of the paper.

Charity and awareness generation Question 1 Do you think that Concert for Bangladesh by George Harrison in 1971 and LiveAid by Geldof in 1985 to aid starving sub-Saharan Africans really helped the cause?

9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00

musician non-musicians

This is the first case that shows that the response of the non-musician population is stronger that the musician sample. The over all trend in answer says that it indeed helped the cause.

Question 2 Is activisms by musicians like Bono from U2 in the fields of hunger, disease and poverty and dramatic reduction in child mortality rate are closely related if not directly?

10.00 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0.00

musician non-musicians

The graph tells us that most of the people are neutral about the effect, yet the people who believe it has a positive effect is stronger that those who think that it has no effect. So we can take that there is a very weak relation.

As we can conclude from the questioner survey, that most of the answers went in accordance with our desire of proving the hypothesis correct, that music is not just merely a form of entertainment, and even people agreed with that.

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS:

Combining our primary and secondary research, we can conclude that our findings matches with our hypothesis, that music is not just a form or entertainment. We have found sufficient proof from our secondary research. Which sheds light into the numerous benefits that music can inflict upon us. Starting from giving us courage to stand for what Is right, to emotional or psychological support, educational and health benefits, as well as trying to make the world a better place to live in. we have found that music is somehow involved in each of the cases mentioned above and plays a vital role in it. Our primary research results reflect the trend found by the secondary research results. They both agree that music has a wide number of important benefits. And people also agree with that, but the agreement is much more stronger among the musician community. But in both the cases they match the secondary data. Therefore the data collected fully supports our hypothesis, as because music is not just a shallow field of entertainment, rather it has numerous layers that are still waiting to be uncovered.

LIMITATIONS
Although our hypothesis has been proved, the major limitation of this study are that he sample selected may not represent the population correctly. As much effort was not exerted while forming the sample. And that people tends to be biased towards their opinion. So even if the answer is not what they believe they would answer in such a manner that their side of the argument is stronger. Other than that the last complication faced was the limited amount of time. Music is a vast subject as we just saw, hence it takes a long time to adapt.

CONCLUSION
With all the data collected and the research done, along with the data analysis information from the primary research, we can conclude that music still holds the same values for us as it did in its golden days. That is it still is more than just a passive entertainment factor and is a integral part of our live and our culture. With the benefits of emotional support, courage, psychological support, medical and educational benefits. Music is not and never was just a form of entertainment.

REFERENCES:
Boyed, R. S., 2003, the role of music in human life. Retrieved from http://articles.philly.com/2003-07-14/news/25452805_1_music-studies-natureneuroscience-petr-janata Caron, S. W., Top10 Benefit of Listening Music, n.d. Retrieved from http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/814331/10-reasons-why-your-child-shouldplay-a-musical-instrument-1a

Drew, D., 2012, para. 2, art and musics role in peacebuilding. Retrieved from http://www.internationalpeaceandconflict.org/profiles/blog/list?tag=Art&user=090n7skp ckug9)

Dymond, G., 2010, benefit concerts: an abbreviated history. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/things-that-go-pop-blog/2010/01/benefit-concerts-anabbreviated-history.html#socialcomments

Fogel, H., 2007, the importance of music in education. http://www.artsjournal.com/ontherecord/2007/03/the_importance_of_music_educat.html

Levy, D., 2010, the importance of music in schools. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/

Oak, M., 2012, The effects of music on the mind. Retrieved from www.buzzle.com/effects-ofmusic -on-the-mind.

Ward, B., 2004,para. 2, People Get Ready: Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Retrieved from http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-rightsmovement/essays/%E2%80%9Cpeople-get-ready%E2%80%9D-music-and-civil-rightsmovement-1950s

Wilford, J. N., 2007, Flutes Revised Age Dates the Sound of Music Earlier D4. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/science/oldest-musical-instrumentsare-even-older-than-first-thought.html?_r=0

APPENDIX