Music is emotion, it is art; it is support and love. 
Music plays a key role in my existence. Without it I am lost; a ship without a mast floating in an ocean of dark reality. Therefore, it goes wherever I go, be it on CD, MP3, or just buried somewhere deep down in my soul.
I also read a lot; reading everything I can get my hands on; be it the sides of cereal boxes, two or three paperbacks on the go at one time, or articles and journals that seem to be interesting. Some of these readings focus on people like me - musically oriented individuals that seem to have little need for peace and quiet.
Two books I have read over the last few years were 'This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession', written by Daniel J. Levitin and 'Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain' by Oliver Sacks. Both of these books, written by renowned neurologists and academic scholars, examine how the human mind is affected by music. Just as intriguing, they study how music is interpreted by different human minds in different human ways.
Certain people love jazz music with its unrestrained nature allowing it to morph instantly from one 'mood' to another. Others resist jazz music for these very same reasons. Levitin and Sacks however, note jazz lovers seem to have the ability to shut down those areas of the brain that regulate inhibition and self-control, while jazz haters tend to favour strict controls, consistent rhythms and rigorous structures; essentially lending themselves more towards blues-based rock and roll or predictable pop.
These two neurologists imply there are links between music and brain activity. They use examples of music being shown to have the power to soothe infants, trigger memories, temper pain, aid in sleep, and cause changes in heart rate.
Music can alleviate the symptoms of disorders ranging from autism and dementia through depression, stroke and hypertension.
In one of his chapters, Daniel 
Levitin infers through music's ability to influence our emotional state, we improve our health unconsciously just by listening to it. When we are relaxed and calm, we reduce our stress levels and our hormones find balance. We breathe more deeply, digest our food more smoothly, and engage in natural conversation with others more fluently. Oliver Sacks backs up this idea in his book, which applies a more moral argument to the idea. He justifies music as being integral to the human race; essentially claiming that our responsiveness to melody and music is imbedded in the human brain itself; with receptors and regions that are flawlessly evolved for the sole purpose of embracing music.
These books were both very interesting so I would recommend them to anyone. They are written so the average layperson can easily understand them. Just this afternoon however, I came across two other works that took the ideas of Levitin and Sacks to entirely new levels. The first of them even took music one step further.
In Jeffrey Masson’s book 'When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals', he examines the stigma science maintains against anthropomorphism, or the idea animals have complex systems of feelings just as we do - pain, pleasure, love, loss, grief, sadness, impatience and more. If we were to assume animals can feel just like we can, what would happen to our entire system of farming, in which we kill animals for their meat, their fur, their fat, horns and tusks? We may have to re-examine everything that has happened since Darwin first implied animals have feelings - an implication that was shunned and rejected.
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20′s and 30′s are now octogenarians. 
