Music Psychology: Why Does "Bohemian Rhapsody" Feel so Good? (FutureLearn)

Offered by Griffith University,
Music Psychology: Why Does "Bohemian Rhapsody" Feel so Good? (FutureLearn)

Explore music psychology and find out why music can make us feel, by analysing Queen's famous song, "Bohemian Rhapsody". Toe-tapping and hair-raising: discover the power of music. Some songs make us laugh and some songs make us cry, but why does music have the ability to affect us emotionally? On this course, you’ll learn about music psychology and how our emotions work, by analysing Queen’s famous song, “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

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You’ll find out how the mind interprets patterns in music and generates an emotional response as a result.
You’ll explore how music communicates with the brain’s reward centre, and generates a chemical reaction that can provide a feeling of happiness.
Finally, you’ll discover why emotional experiences are influenced by our own expectations.

What topics will you cover?

  • Why does music make us feel things?
  • Why do we feel things in the first place? What are emotions and moods, exactly?
  • How do emotions work?
  • What is it about music that makes us feel things? How do musicians set up expectations?
  • Why should they make you expect anything? How do different expectations lead to emotions?

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Explore the psychology of emotions as they relate to music
  • Explain the basis by which music manipulates our expectations of music to evoke emotions
  • Reflect on how musical emotional experiences are influenced by our differing expectations in specific musical examples
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