Music Society and its Impact
Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions – including the factors that either help or delay social change. The development of recording techniques in the last half of the 20th century has developed the amount to which most people have access to music. All kinds of music are available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch. The down side of this easy availability of music in the Western world is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted.

Music is a very powerful medium and in some societies there have been attempts to control its use. It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of individual, group, cultural and national identities. It is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral. Few other stimuli have effects on such a wide range of human functions. The brain’s multiple processing of music can make it difficult to predict the particular effects of any piece of music on any individual. The power of music to act intensely has long been recognized. Therapy can involve listening to or actively making music. Increasingly it may involve both. Music can be effective in coincidence with other interferences in promoting relaxation, alleviating anxiety and pain in medicine and dentistry, and promoting well being through the production of particular endorphins. Its therapeutic uses have been explored extensively with particular groups of patients, the elderly, those with brain damage, and those with persistent pain. It has also been used to promote appropriate behavior in vulnerable groups and enhance the