Stopping to take photos, discovering interesting places, and learning about the culture of the place you're visiting are some of the things that make traveling enjoyable. However, there is one thing that almost everyone considers the best thing to do while traveling - listen to music. Whether you're traveling by land, water, or air, the presence or absence of music can completely change your travel experience. Music and travel go together like peanut butter and jelly. There is a special kind of joy that comes with soaking up the sounds around you when you are on a journey. Below are a few reasons why music is an essential part of the journey.
Music creates memories
Do you have a song that takes you back to a certain time and place and immediately hits the right spot? Avid travelers are also music lovers. The strongest of their travel memories are associated with certain songs. If you ask a friend to tell you about their vacation, it may not be easy for them. On the other hand, a song can evoke strong memories or emotions. As soon as a friend hears a song related to his travels, he will enthusiastically tell you an unforgettable story about his adventures. You may feel as if you were there. The hospitality and entertainment businesses have discovered the importance of music when traveling. Some have introduced "branded sound" for their establishments, which is part of the sound branding to get guests to connect to the facility. Music creates strong sound memories. It complements the experience of travel since travel is the perception of impressions by all the senses. To get the most out of your trip, you need to take in the sights, taste the local cuisine, smell the different surroundings, and hear the pleasant music.
Music gives energy to perseverance
Travel can sometimes be challenging. Music for traveling by car when you are driving through difficult terrain or in cloudy weather will make even the longest trips bearable, as it distracts you from the current temporary, but difficult situation. Research shows that music reduces anxiety and triggers a wave of calm. For this reason, don't forget to make a great playlist of music for traveling by car when preparing for a long journey. If you plan a long journey on the road, make sure that your car audio system is in good condition. Taking these two steps will help you go a long way no matter how hectic it may be. Music for traveling by plane will also be a great helper in finding inner harmony and calm.
Music connects people
One of the great benefits of traveling is the ability to interact and learn something about the locals. Talking to people is the most effective way to interact. With music, it's easy to start a conversation. For example, carrying a musical instrument such as a guitar demonstrates your interest in music. Somehow, everyone likes to have a friend who loves music. Even such a simple action as singing a line of your favorite music can lead to amazing impressions from communicating with strangers. You can get to know a person better by talking about your favorite travel music, for example. Wherever you go, music will help you understand people better. When you are traveling to a travel destination and don't know a single word of the language used there, use the universal language - music. Playing a happy song can make you seem friendly. Similarly, when you hear a beautiful song played by the locals, you will feel welcome.
Music helps you easily get into the local atmosphere
When you travel to places you've never been before, you want to feel like you fit in, even if you'll only be there for two days. You want to experience life there in the best possible way. But getting that experience is very difficult if you don't understand the local flow of things. Knowing and listening to local music can help you quickly immerse yourself in the atmosphere of a new place. It's great to find a place where there are concerts and music scenes. It will make your travel experience to a higher level. Besides, leaving the comfort zone and listening to unfamiliar music will add flavour to your journey. You will create a unique, private and personal experience for yourself. In addition, travel music will help you learn a new language faster. The music has a melody that is easy to remember, so you can use it to learn a foreign language. Learning a language through music also informs the worldview of a culture. Are you planning to travel to a foreign country and have a basic knowledge of a foreign language? You can start listening to songs performed in this language when you are driving to and from work.
Music reduces the chances of getting bored while traveling
Some people find traveling boring. However, traveling is a different story with music. By listening to it, you maintain a high level of energy until the end of the journey. Music can make your body do things it doesn't want to do. Compare the time you can train while the music is playing when there is no music. For most people, music is a significant mood booster. If you take your family on a road trip, there is a chance that your children will get bored someday. Music does magic that nothing else can. Prepare a friendly playlist for them. There is a strong connection between music and travel. They make each other better. You find it more enjoyable to travel while listening to music. With a well-chosen playlist, a reliable stereo system, and excellent car speakers, your road trips are nothing short of total enjoyment. You do not get bored but stay in a good mood until the end of the trip. In addition, music connects you to the local area you are visiting, its language, and its people. Music for traveling by plane on the other hand will calm you down and perhaps distract you from worrying thoughts.
How does music affect emotions?
One of the most important questions in the psychology of music is how does music affect emotions? Music can evoke powerful emotional responses in listeners, such as chills and tremors.
Positive emotions dominate musical experiences. Pleasant music can lead to the release of reward-related neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. Listening to music is an easy way to change your mood or relieve stress. People use music in their daily lives to regulate, enhance, and reduce unwanted emotional states (e.g., stress, fatigue). How does listening to music evoke emotions and pleasure in listeners?
1. Musical pleasure: It seems that enjoying music involves the same pleasure center in the brain as other forms of pleasure, such as food, sex, and drugs. Experience shows that an aesthetic stimulus, such as music, can naturally affect the brain's dopamine systems, which are usually involved in highly reinforcing and addictive behaviors.
In one study, participants listened to their favorite songs after taking naltrexone. Naltrexone is a widely used drug for the treatment of drug addiction. The researchers found that when subjects took naltrexone, they reported that their favorite songs were no longer enjoyable. However, not everyone experiences a strong emotional reaction to music.
Approximately 5% of the population does not experience chills. This inability to enjoy music has been called musical anhedonia.
2. Musical anticipation: Music can be enjoyable both when it meets expectations and when it breaks them. The more unexpected the events in music, the more surprising the musical experience (Gebauer & Kringelbach, 2012). We appreciate music that is less predictable and a little more complex.
3. Refined emotions: There is also an intellectual component to evaluating music. Dopamine systems do not work in isolation, and their impact will largely depend on their interaction with other areas of the brain. That is, our ability to enjoy music can be seen as a result of our human emotional brain and its later evolution of the neocortex. Experience shows that people who constantly respond emotionally to aesthetic musical stimuli have a stronger white matter connection between the auditory cortex and areas associated with emotional processing, which means that these two areas communicate more effectively (Sachs et al., 2016).
4. Travel memories: Memories are one of the important ways in which musical events evoke emotions. As the late physician Oliver Sacks noted, musical emotions and musical memory can survive long after other forms of memory have disappeared. Part of the reason for the long-term power of music is that listening to music engages many parts of the brain, causing connections and creating associations.
5. The action of the trend: Music often creates a strong tendency to coordinate with the music (e.g. dancing, footwork). Our internal rhythms (such as our heart rate) speed up or slow down to become one with the music. We float and move with the music.
6. Emotional mimicry: Music evokes emotions not only on an individual level but also on an interpersonal and intergroup level. Listeners reflect their reactions to what the music expresses, such as sadness from sad music or joy from happy music.
7. Consumer behaviour: Popular music has a surprisingly strong influence on consumer behaviour. For example, in one study (North, et al., 1999), shoppers in the supermarket's beverage section were exposed to either French or German music. The results showed that when playing French music, French wine is superior to German wine, and when playing German music, German wine is superior to French wine.
8. Mood regulation: People crave "escape" at an indefinite time to escape their troubles and troubles. Music offers a resource for regulating emotions. People use music to achieve various goals, such as energising, focusing on a task, and reducing boredom. For example, sad music allows the listener to break away from disturbing situations (breakup, death, etc.) and focus instead on the music's beauty. In addition, texts that resonate with the listener's personal experience can provide an opportunity to voice feelings or experiences that the person may not express.
9. Perception of time: Music is a powerful emotional stimulus that changes our relationships over time. It seems that time flies when you listen to music. Therefore, music is used in waiting rooms to reduce the subjective length of waiting time and in supermarkets to encourage people to stay longer and buy more (Droit-Volet et al., 2013). The pleasant perception of music seems to distract attention from the processing of time. Moreover, the effect of shortening attention is more pronounced in the case of calm music with a slow tempo.
10. Personal development: Music can be a powerful tool for personal development (Lidskog, 2016). Young people draw their sense of identity from music. For example, the film "Blinded by Light" shows Springsteen's songs' power to speak to Javed's experience on a personal level. Words help him find a voice he never knew he had and the courage to follow his dream, find love and assert himself.