Just because you vowed to kick over a snowman if you hear yet one more version of “Frosty” on the radio doesn’t make you a bad person. It makes you human. Any season packed with so much to do, so much to buy, and so many holiday tunes to hear is prone to make any human get a little stressed. Any music can become a major inducer of stress, and holiday tunes get extra credit because they can be so inescapably incessant.
Here are five reasons holiday music can make you want to rip your hair out, or at least dismember a snowman:
It’s a buying ploy. Those in the know definitely know stores use the music to induce shoppers to get into the seasonal spirit, which in retail terms means buy, buy, buy. Holiday music mixed with holiday smells can create one big holiday buying spree. If you’re onto this ploy you may be setting up a defense system and resentment before you even step in the store.
It alters your body systems. Music affects your brain waves, breathing and heart rate. A languid, soothing tempo slows it all down while a jumpy, jangling, jet-paced tune can send it all through the roof. Your brain waves respond to a tune by automatically attempting to match the tempo of the music.
Your autonomic nervous system does the same, responding with an amendment to your breathing and heart rate. Perhaps that’s why slower songs like “Silent Night,” which offer a calming vibe, can be way less irritating than the rapid-paced “Rudolph” or good ole “Frosty.”
It may not fit your mood. Your body will defy your mind every time when it comes to music. That means if your mind and your body’s reaction to music may be at odds if your thoughts are slow and lethargic and you’re presented with a peppy, perky tune.
It goes deeper than the music. Sounds are one of the most powerful memory boosters, and any song associated with a less-than-pleasant memory can force that memory into the forefront of your mind. Negative holiday memories might be in that cache, especially since our brains are very good at remembering the bad stuff over the good. Another layer of stress can come if the holidays tend to generally stress you out to begin with and the music only reinforces the stress – again and again.
It’s repetitive. The repetition of any song, even if you initially liked the song, can change your tune, so to speak. University of London researcher Victoria Williamson, who studies the psychology of music, notes the cycle any song can take. First you may like it, loving it more and more each time you hear it until it reaches its peak. The more you hear the song after the love peak, the more annoying the song can become.
Now that you know why holiday music can send your stress levels soaring, you may be able to more effectively disassociate from the stress. You can instead watch the process unfold, more fascinated with the way the brain works than you are bent on taking a defenseless snowman’s life. Also take heed to change the radio station if such tunes stress you out when they’re streaming through your car.
SOURCES:
