Do you have a song that can boost your mood instantly? Research has proven that listening to upbeat music can energize your mind, reduce stress and help you focus. Upbeat music stimulates reward centers in your brain that produce dopamine – your body’s natural “joyful” chemicals. Listening to “happy” music can help alter your mood and make boring or difficult tasks less grueling. Music with a faster pace can also help increase your endurance and motivation. There are many physical benefits to listening to music as well. Upbeat music can cause a subconscious response in your body including increased heart rate and heart rate variability. According to the US National Library of Medicine, “Music can be utilized as an effective intervention for patients with depressive symptoms, geriatrics and in pain, intensive care or palliative medicine.” Though reactions to music can be subjective, more often than not, music helps ease pain, stress and anxiety.

Get Happy! Playlist

Since upbeat music can have mental and physical health benefits, we created this upbeat playlist called “Get Happy!” to help boost your mood. This playlist is great for a cardio workout or to keep you motivated while you do housework or everyday tasks. We hand-selected songs from genres including pop, rock, country, dance music and indie folk music. Oklahoma is home to a fantastic music scene of all genres, so this playlist includes seven Oklahoma artists as well. You can access this playlist by simply clicking play on the application below or by downloading Spotify on your mobile device and clicking this link: Get Happy! I On Your Health OK. (You'll need a Spotify account to listen, but Spotify accounts are completely free, and you can log in using your Facebook account.)

Featured Oklahoma Artists

“Digital Witness” by St. Vincent – Tulsa, OK “Class Historian” by Broncho – Norman, OK “High Brow” by Tallows – Oklahoma City, OK “Impala Abdul” by Deerpeople – Stillwater, OK “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” by The Flaming Lips – Oklahoma City, OK “Take it Back” by The Wurly Birds – Oklahoma City, OK “7 & 7” by Turnpike Troubadours – Tahlequah, OK

OKC Band: Tallows -- What does music do for your health?

We interviewed Josh Hogsett and Richard Lindsey of Oklahoma City band, Tallows.

What does music do for you mentally, emotionally, and/or physically?

“Music helps us focus on whatever tasks we are trying complete. Whether we are trying to write a song or just exercising it gives us structure to complete a task. Mentally, we like to analyze it and see why certain songs make us feel the way we do, and then transfer those feelings into our own.”

How does music help you “get happy”?

“As a band we listen to music to get excited before a show or practice. The same goes for relaxing afterwards.”

What makes a song sound “happy”?

“What makes a song “happy” differs person to person. One might think a song in a major key at 120 beats per minute sounds happy, while it may greatly annoy another person. Most of the time it’s hard to identify what makes a song happy. Standard 4/4 time signatures in major keys tend to make a good majority of people happy which is why it is such a norm in pop music. For other people (like us) it can be odd time signatures and alternating keys.”

Science has proven that listening to upbeat music can energize your mind, reduce stress and help you focus. How has music done this for you?

“Happens all the time for us, which may be why we continue to make music! Hearing a song that you really like can take your mind off of whatever problems you are trying to solve. When performing a song it really makes you focus on the task at hand while being a rewarding experience at the same time.”

Have you ever experienced physical benefits of music?

“Surprisingly playing shows can be quite a workout depending on how energetic we are. There are times when one of us will accidentally injure ourselves and not notice that we are bleeding from an injury until we’re done playing. I don't know if the last one is really that great for our health, but it is a great example of music being a distraction from pain.”

Any last thoughts?

“In addition to feeling “happy,” music can be used to connect with many different emotions (anger, sadness, etc). This is why there are so many different types of music and different ways benefit from music emotionally and physically. We listen to a lot of drone music that definitely would not be considered happy music, it's more contemplative and introspective, there are benefits to all types of tunes!”