Have you ever listened to the kind of music that makes you wanna get up and dance? How about music that makes you want to do something heroic? How about the kind of music that makes you sad? Nostalgic? Happy? What about the Wonder Woman theme? If you’ve heard it, you know how it kind makes you wanna do something epic. It’s like a motivational music.
Listen to these two variations – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw_o7XUX3fg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctMc6SxVFY Another example is Epic music (that’s what it’s called) like these two – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2hRTLdvdnk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwJj2EpC8vg or Nostalgic emotions from Retroelectro and Synthwave – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bkCmaOh4o these two just wanna make you go back to the 80’s (90’s in my case) or Cheerful emotions from this fun little song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ2_tOoefyU For me, it’s the Mortal Kombat movie intro that pumps up my heartbeat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ac6BXGfuA
Of course, this also applies to different sounds besides music. For example, on a more grim note, during a recent explosion, you could hear people scream in the videos (Emotion of Fear due to explosion and emotions of sadness and sympathy due to the screams when you hear them).
Basically, my point, is that all of those different types of music and sounds provoke different emotional responses. But have you ever asked yourself why? Well, the simple answer to this is that sound is the most important stimulus for virtually any living creature with ears or something similar to ears on this planet. Often even more so than sight. Many animals don’t even rely on sight, sound is their only way of “seeing” (Sonar/Ultra Sound).
You see, sounds, any kind, actually play a huge part in not only how we perceive the world around us, but also largely on our emotional state, on how we feel in that moment. It doesn’t have to be music, I’m talking about sounds. It can be the chirping of a bird or a waterfall or a tiger roaring or an explosion or a fast car driving by. Any sound, affects our thought process, in part of course, it changes the way we feel and think in that moment, about that moment.
Another thing you might’ve noticed is how men with deeper voice usually get more attention while talking, while men with higher voice, don’t as much. It of course depends on what each one is saying and other external factors, etc. But our voice, has an impact. It enhances our personality in people’s eyes. Maybe it could be the deep seated sexism, where high pitched voice of a male is associated with women and therefore weak and not worth listening to? Who knows? But no, it’s not that likely that that’s the case, because it’s the same with women.
Of course, there have been some further studies to this (even in the dating aspect, the ‘getting more attention’ aspect still stands even in those studies);
Of course, either way, it still proves how voices affect our choices, our moods, our thoughts and even attraction in social settings.
So, how does this relate to everyday life and Conflict Management and Self-Protection? Well, it relates to how we communicate. It relates to what kind of tone we use while speaking. Verbal communication skills are often overlooked in training and verbal deescalation doesn’t just include saying the ‘right thing’, it includes saying it the right way with the right tone of voice. See, having a deep voice is good, but it’s the tone that you speak in, that affects their opinion of you. Certain kinds of tones, that sound too aggressive, too confident, too controlling, too weak, too indifferent, too unsure, basically anything too extreme on either sides, will affect how a person thinks of you.
Sounds, affect thoughts and opinions and those thoughts and opinions will determine how that person treats you. Don’t take the power of your voice, for granted, learn to harness it. Pay attention to the sounds around you, and remember, if you ever feel down, there’s a lot of good music up there that you can listen to and get motivated. Something to think about 🙂
Here’s a nice little addition that (sort of) explains the mystery behind such kind of motivational music like the Wonder Woman theme; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vQz4Xz6q8
Street Self Defense 