Music, How It Affects Your Mood and Brain.
In this paper, I am going to be answering 2 different questions. What parts of your brain does music affect, and how can music affect your mood? I hope you enjoy it. :)

What parts of your brain does music affect?
The first question I wanted to answer was; what part of your brain does music affect? So when you are listening to music your whole brain gets involved. The temporal lobe is what mainly gets activated. The left side is what is understanding lyrics and language, while the right side is understanding the instruments and actual music and sounds. ̈While music and plain speaking are primarily processed in the temporal lobe, music enacts the right brain much more than just speaking does. ̈(“A Crash Course on How Your Brain Processes Music | Incadence Music Therapy Blog”) Whenever you are listing to music, and your finger starts tapping along to the beat, or you start tapping your foot that is your cerebellum. (McCollum) Your cerebellum's main job is posture
and balance, while it does not initiate movement it contributes to precision, coordination, and other things. (“12.9C: Modulation of Movement by the Cerebellum”) When listening understanding the pitch and tone is taken care of mainly by your auditory cortex. Your auditory cortex is what takes care of understanding music and sound. The analysis of songs and the ̈expextations ̈ of the song is understood by the prefrontal cortex. (McCollum) When listing to music your brain sets expectations for a song, listing in for a steady melody or rhythm. But your brain also likes it when there are quick changes, so a beat drops or a change in beat or melody. Remembering the lyrics to your favorite song or how it starts is handed by the hippocampus. The hippocampus's main job is memory and learning. (Dhikav and Anand) When you are listening to music and you start to feel happy when listening to an uplifting song or sad when listing to sad music those emotions are triggered through the amygdala nucleus accumbens and cerebellum. ̈Music has the power to trigger feelings in listeners. Three main areas of the brain are responsible for these emotional responses: the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, and the cerebellum. ̈ (McCollum)

How does music affect your mood?
You know how when you are listing to your favorite song, and you get excited or happy before the chorus, or when you hear the opening beats? Well, that's because your brain knows something good is coming so it releases dopamine. Dopamine is what helios you feel happy, and satisfied so whenever you pet a cute puppy your brain releases dopamine. ̈ It triggers a release of dopamine to the brain. And if you don’t know, dopamine is a kind of naturally occurring happy chemical we receive as part of a reward system. Now here’s the really interesting part: Dopamine is not only released during peak musical moments but also when we anticipate those moments. It’s like our brain is rewarding us for knowing a great chorus is just about to hit! ̈(Health) Music can make you feel happy (because of the dopamine release). You normally want to listen to happy music whenever you are happy, as it can ̈prolong ̈ your happiness. (A. Hoffer) A lot of the time when you are sad you will listen to more mellow or chill music, there is a theory that certain songs act almost as if they are a friend. Whenever you are sad you may want to rant or work through your feelings with a friend, well music can act as that friend. (A. Hoffer) Sometimes songs can feel like they are empathizing with you, and have gone through the same experiences with you. Like if your friend said something mean to you, or you are in an argument with your family there is most likely a song about it. That song can make you feel heard and make processing those feelings easier. ̈The researchers found that mood-congruent experiences (i.e., listening to a sad song while in a sad mood) served several functions, such as individuals feeling as though someone empathized with them and their experiences ̈. (A. Hoffer) You can also use music to ̈challenge your mood ̈. (A. Hoffer) So if you are feeling down, and want to shake off your bad mood, start with a slower mellow song, and slowly add more happy or uplifting songs to help uplift your mood. ̈At first, you might be thinking that it cannot be that easy to change your mood by listening to a couple of songs. However, researchers suggest otherwise ̈ Your feelings get most attached or are stronger when you hear a song for the first time. So you may cry to a song the first couple of times you hear it, but after a couple, more listens you won't feel the same, and may not even like the song as much anymore. Or if you hear a song on the radio and hate it, you may get part of it stuck in your head or may not listen to a certain song for a long time and find a hidden love for it. (Health) This works for nostalgic songs, when you are younger and hear a song you can associate a feeling with it
during your ̈ formative years ̈ ( your formative years are between 12-22) So when you hear that song that you loved during your childhood it can bring back nostalgic memories. If your old favorite song was Roar by Katy Perry and when you were 13 when you are older you will feel nostalgia and may still remember all the words. (Health) Music is very powerful in the way it can motivate you, help you work through feelings, and can validate your experiences.