Morris - Havana Lover (Emil Lassaria Remix)

The Way Music Therapy Promotes Health

"Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of health care known as Music Therapy, which uses music to heal. Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring. This is not surprising, as music affects the body and mind in many powerful ways. The following are some of effects of music, which help to explain the effectiveness of music therapy:

Brain Waves: Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state. Also, research has found that the change in brainwave activity levels that music can bring can also enable the brain to shift speeds more easily on its own as needed, which means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening.

Breathing and Heart Rate: With alterations in brainwaves comes changes in other bodily functions. Those governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be altered by the changes music can bring. This can mean slower breathing, slower heart rate, and an activation of the relaxation response, among other things. This is why music and music therapy can help counteract or prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress, greatly promoting not only relaxation, but health.

State of Mind: Music can also be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other benefits.

Other Benefits: Music has also been found to bring many other benefits, such as lowering blood pressure (which can also reduce the risk of stroke and other health problems over time), boost immunity, ease muscle tension, and more. With so many benefits and such profound physical effects, it’s no surprise that so many are seeing music as an important tool to help the body in staying (or becoming) healthy.

Using Music Therapy: With all these benefits that music can carry, it's no surprise that music therapy is growing in popularity. For more information on music therapy, visit the American Music Therapy Association's website.

Using Music On Your Own: While music therapy is an important discipline, you can also achieve benefits from music on your own. This article on music, relaxation and stress management can explain more of how music can be an especially effective tool for stress management, and can be used in dailly life." Article source: www.stress.about.com.

Morris - Angel Eyes (Treitl Hammond Remix)

The History of Club Dancing

The history of club dancing goes back to the mid to late 1970s, and has continued to evolve ever since. From Ibiza to Paris, from San Francisco to New York, dance has been a part of the club scene. As long as there is music in the clubs, there will be dancing.  

The Clubs 

According to AmericanHeritage.com, the history of the club dates back to before WWII. The French had dance clubs called discotheques, but when the Nazis invaded, they took over clubs and outlawed certain types of music, such as swing and jazz. This was due to the American, Jewish and African American influences on those styles. When the war was over, discotheques went underground, becoming very secretive and hard to find. Patrons usually learned of them via word of mouth. As time passed, the concept of the discotheque was brought to New York, and it became the realm of the elite. One hundred dollar entry fees and yearly dues kept out anyone but the wealthy, and going to a club became a badge of upper class living. Fortunately, that changed during the late sixties, when Richard Burton's first ex-wife, Sybil Burton, used her divorce settlement to open her own club, Arthur. She purposely designed it as the antithesis of the discotheque; fashion and spirit were required to get in, not just money. 

The Dances 

Dances were, and still are, invented by teens, later discarded, and then picked up by the adults. According to AmericanHeritage.com, a perfect example of this is the Twist. Teens in the late fifties created the dance, but by the time Kennedy's term ended, everyone from socialites to senior citizens were doing it. Many different dances appeared in rapid succession; The Jerk (not to be confused with 2008's jerk dance), the Hitchhiker, the Bug, among others. Most of these dances were fairly easy to do. The Jerk was simply bending and crossing the arms; the Hitchhiker used the thumbs as if "hitching" for a ride; and in the Bug, the dancer pretended to itch and scratch, passing the "infestation" along to another dancer. All of these dances could be found in the club scene, and contests were often held to see who could best do a specific dance. Winners would often get trophies, but even if they did not, they had the respect and esteem of their peers--until the next contest.

The Music

Club music really started to change in the mid to late 1970s. According to the unesco.org website, it was around that time that house music, named for its appearance at The Warehouse club, became popular. House had its roots in black and Latino music, and part of what made it so popular was that the DJs would play 15 hours of music in a row without a break. The music was loud, pulsating, and full of energy. This kept people dancing, literally, all night long.

The Drugs

According to AmericanHeritage.com, drugs have been a part of the club dance scene since the days of the French discotheque. In the early days, most clubgoers chose cocktails or hard liquor. During the days of Andy Warhol, speed was shot or consumed. In the 60s, the drug of choice among dancers was LSD. In the 70's, participants took poppers (an amphetamine), quaaludes (a depressant), and cocaine. All of these drugs were chosen to enhance the dance experience for those who took them. Some, like poppers and cocaine, helped participants dance for hours without fatigue.

Club Dancing Today

Today's clubs are much more varied than they were in the past. Clubs can be found all over the world, playing all sorts of music. Different genres of music are being created regularly, especially in the house scene. Clubgoers range from teens to adults, and clubs have taken this into account. Major cities have under and over 21 club scenes to cater to each crowd. As for the dancing, teens are creating new dances all the time. Mostly, however, dances are free-style and avoid a great deal of structure." Article source: www.ehow.com.