Get Your Daily Dose of Music

Getting a good massage to get all that tension out of your muscles and just relax has always been known as a great stress reliever. Massages are absolutely great aren’t they, but they can accumulate to a hefty price tag and if you are on a budget especially with these troubling economic times, saving is what is on people’s minds. I know of another great way to soothe your soul and put you in mode of ultimate relaxation and would cost you a lot less money. So no need to worry there is another method that has been proven to work and is backed up with facts and extensive research, and that’s your daily dose of music. Doctors and researches have found significant evidence that proves this theory, in which, music with or without deep breaths can relieve a lot of those stressful, troublesome, and tense moments that everybody experiences some time in their lives.

Music is a therapy that many of us can use and many people are driving in their cars right now listening to some of their favorite tracks not even realizing how the music is relaxing them. A daily dose of music is incredible for soothing the mental strain after an argument, a hard day at work, or just to unwind. If you get your daily dose it can be out of this world, invigorating, and stimulating to mind and the muscles. Music is so useful in helping people across the world deal with and it alleviates the pain of seriously critical situations. According to a November issue of the Harvard Heart letter back in 2009, researchers found out that listening to music can lower your blood pressure, slow down the heart rate and lessen anxiety in people that are hospitalized for heart ailments. People that are going through severe conditions like this, as anybody knows are suffering from a tremendous amount of stress and music has been a proven means to help calm their nerves even with these most critical situations that are in front of them.

The same thing goes for healthy people, in which, music was found to be able to lower blood pressure and reduce stress. Also, the  American Music Therapy Association recommends that a daily dose of music do-it-yourself option, in which you should find music that makes you feel excellent and sit back, listen and enjoy. If there is a nerve-racking moment, event or situation that is keeping you boggled down and is inevitable, clutch yourself a dose of some good music that you truly get pleasure from and love as a natural remedy that has been proven to work.

The power of music is good for your health, in the same way as your favorite comedian, comedic movie, or sitcom, which makes you chuckle so hard at times that your stomach muscles start to hurt and your jaw muscles become sore. Dr. Mike Miller. Mike Miller a research cardiologist at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, tested the effects of laughter and listening to your favorite dose of good music, and found out that watching an amusing movie and listening to your preferred dose of music opens up your blood vessels, allowing blood to circulate more freely all through the body. “Turns out music may be one of the best de-stressors by even playing or even listening to music, said Dr. Miller. However, there is a reverse effect when you are listening to music that you don’t particularly like, so make sure that your daily dose of music is pleasing to you. I personally like artists such as, Eminem, Drake, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Cee Lo Green, and many others, but I can’t imagine that every person would envy my choice of music. So, I try to compromise with my peers with a dose of music that we all enjoy.

So listen to your favorite tunes whatever they might be to put your body at ease and to make those stressful times and moments melt away a lot more faster and as a result they become easier to deal with, because facts from statistics for the most part don’t lie and are not deceptive. Statistics might come from a sample size, because it would be more complex and pricey to get the results from a whole population, but it is through these samples that we can find considerable verification about how the effects a good dose of music can truly have. Music helps out so much, that it has been implemented in a lot of hospitals across the country, because the results have been proven to help patients sleep better, decrease their pain, and relieves their stress and improves their moods.

Good soft music is just as good as a massage. This was discovered by a study conducted by Karen J. Sherman, Phd, MPH a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. “We were surprised to find out that the benefits of a massage were no greater than those of the same number of sessions of thermotherapy or listening to relaxing music,” said Dr. Sherman. So, just sit back, relax, take deep breaths and listen to your favorite doses of good music.

Listening to music at work can make you more productive as well, and many people maintain that having their serving of a dose of good music while at work helps them work better. Research from University of Windsor Canada showed the effects a daily dose of good music had on the work performance of software developers. The software developer participants’ moods changed positively, it enhanced their perception and their creativity increased. Also, the study found that if music was taken away from the work environment their creativeness and curiosity diminished. In a business where imagination is needed music was an outstanding source of becoming more innovative and coming up with fresh ideas, and as a result more innovations in software were developed. The music can be more of a sedative or relaxation type of music to really ease those tensions and stressful working situations. However, highly-strung music can work as well, legendary writer Stephen King once wrote that he listened to hard rock when he writes his books. So choose that daily dose of good music that works best for you, because one of the many beauties of the people in this world is that everybody is distinctive and different in their own way and the fact of the matter is some people work better edgy. People are advised to pick and choose the music that better enhances their work performance.

I preferably found that a nice daily dose of chilled out down tempo music works the best for me. I suggest that people should listen to music at work to perk up their work performance and to just make your workday change for the better. I love music and that’s why I started this blog to look into the facts about music and the different ways that it helps us, to what Lebron James listens to before a basketball game. I would imagine that more of an up-tempo style of music works better for athletes to get the players pumped up and ready to play. So, are you getting your daily dose of good music? It is just what the doctor ordered.

Taking from the Underground

There is no secret that mainstream rap artists are searching for ideas, and who could blame them with the decline in record sales and global piracy further hindering and making this issue all that much more worse. There has always been a little bit of peeping going around to see what underground rap artists are doing to enhance their market capability. I ran across a subject that was very comical and attention grabbing to me in a way. It was an article that I came across while surfing the “World Wide Web”, in which, there was an article relating to three hip-hop artists. The article was discussing and creating a contest on which artists out of Kanye West, Lloyd Banks, and Crooked I had the best weekly rap series.

The rationale to why I am saying that the article is amusing to me is because the article was titled “Which Rappers Had the Best Weekly Series”, which was forming a competition between the artists for the readers to judge. The article was by Calvin Stovall of XXL magazine, which either accidently or knowingly forgot to mention that Crooked I started this trend in the first place and Crooked I is no slouch when it comes to rhyming. In fact, some say he is the best period. Mr. Stovall glorifies Kanye West for his G.O.O.D. Friday series and explains that Kanye is a trendsetter, which he most certainly is and there is no argument in that department on my end, but not on this particular topic. Kanye is unquestionably a remarkable artist and his new album “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” is a must buy for hip-hop music lovers. Kanye started his G.O.O.D Friday series as a catalyst to create more momentum and energy for his new album, “My Dark Twisted Fantasy.” The album is brilliant and I don’t think Kanye even had to do a weekly series to build any momentum towards people wanting to go out or download his new album.

Lloyd Banks now that’s another story, he probably did need to be a little bit more in the ears of fans in prospective hopes of generating more build up for his latest album “The Hunger For More 2”. Lloyd Banks followed Kanye’s lead and started a weekly series of his own called “Blue Fridays”, in which he dropped a new freestyle or song every Friday before his album came out. There is now more talk that more artists are going to begin their own exclusive days of releasing weekly music. That is a good way of exhausting and wearing out a good thing.

Now back to Crooked I, a member of the rap group called “Slaughterhouse” (Joe Budden, Royce Da 5’9, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I), which were recently signed to the artist of the decade Eminem’s label earlier this year. Before Crooked I was a member of Slaughterhouse, he dropped his own set of weekly series called “Hip-Hop Weekly.” Crooked I did a weekly freestyle for every week of the year over other artist beats, which got him rave reviews and his fan base grew immensely. This is the kicker, Crooked I started his weekly rap series in April 2007 and finished it for a brief moment on April 2008, until he started up another new weekly series called “Hip-Hop Weekly Reloaded, which was building off of the accomplishment of his first weekly series.” The fans wanted more and Crooked I was willing to deliver more crisp lyrics to them, and believe me I know because I am a fan myself.

Crooked started his Hip-Hop Weekly series once more on August of 2011. He had promised the fans that he was going to drop another weekly series when he was done with the first set of weekly series. Of course, Crooked I doesn’t have no copyright protection for his weekly series, but now Crooked I claims he is going to end his weekly series for good, because as he said in one of his songs there are too many other rappers jumping on board. The funny fact of the matter is that other rappers are getting praise for doing their weekly series and are being called innovative in their weekly series efforts, but Crooked I started the trend in the first place. Since, when is playing the role of the imitator being innovative? I don’t know the answer to that one, but possibly someone can fill me in on that one. Crooked I says he is going to come up with something new, because as he said in one of his verses I set trends and I do not follow them. He stopped his weekly series after 15 weeks. That is why the whole article in XXL and other magazines publications I am certain are doing the same thing are being comical to me on this subject. I know Crooked I isn’t as big as Kanye or Lloyd Banks for that matter, but his recognition is definitely rising and he can thank a lot of that to his weekly rap series that really showcased off his talents. They are trying to compare the weekly series between three artists, in which, they are asking fans who had the best one and not stating the fact that Crooked I started the whole weekly series in the first place is not right in my eyes.

This is just my opinion, of course on the whole matter. There is no better weekly series, because these guys didn’t all come together and start the marketing tactics in a formed agreement. The inventor was Crooked I, but it seems like he is the one suffering for his innovative and creative hard work. There should not even be a competition in my opinion and Crooked I feels very disrespected by both the magazines and the artists alike. I know that there is no secret that mainstream rap artists like to see what’s going on with underground artists, just look at the mixtape.  The whole thing I think is a matter of respect when it comes to the Crooked I getting snubbed in this situation. Crooked I just sought a little bit of notoriety, and he didn’t even mention Kanye’s or Lloyd Banks’ names at all, but he did bring up a a small number of publications. Crooked I mentioned that he was concluding his weekly series and he had something new in store, which excites me because I am a big fan.

If you haven’t heard any of his weekly series yet, I would recommend that you Google Crooked I. If you are a fan of hip-hop music you would most likely enjoy them. All Crooked I sought was for Kanye West, Lloyd Banks and others that were following suit to pay homage, by the means of a simple thank you would of been sufficient perhaps. Crooked I set the trend, so there shouldn’t be a discussion on whose weekly series was the best. Kanye had a lot of features on his weekly series as well, and Crooked I only had a few every now and then. He displayed his talents by himself to increase his following and to prove that he has been slept on for so long. However, this is just my opinion on the matter, please share yours.