Of course music affects our moods, but it's a complicated issue:
there are expectations, there are habits, there are associations that
pieces of music have that are in no sense part of the music, and most
of all there is the fact that in large part we choose what we want to
listen to. I often use Louis Prima to make me happy, but perhaps I
wouldn't put him on if I were not ready to feel happy anyway. Perhaps
I'd feel the same if I put on Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed's Berlin
then - except I don't choose to do so at those times. If only I had a
control Martin Skidmore for experimental purposes!
― Martin Skidmore, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)