Does anyone understand music psychology

[Juche]

I feel like my taste in music would go up dramatically if I understood music psychology (aka what psychological states are best expressed by certain genres of music). For example I heard a few months ago on NPR that country western music is very popular in China, which on the surface is kindof weird. But the reason given is that country music is psychologically about loss, loneliness and being seperated from home, which finds alot of resonance in China where hundreds of millions of rural peasants have moved into large cities to look for work.

So does anyone have a good website or book (preferably website since it is instantly available and free) that they like that is a good primer on this subject. I'm researching it on my own, but hope someone knows some shortcuts to the truly good info.

Basically I"m looking for info on what life events and psychological states find resonance with certain genres or artists of music.

[suninvited]

1. That's an interesting subject

let us know what you find out.

[Doc_Technical]

2. "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_1_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=musicophilia+by+oliver+sacks&sprefix=musicoph

[harmonicon]

3. I think that most of that stuff is garbage

How music moves us has so much to do with factors of the culture we live in and hour own personal histories that to try to drawn any sort of universal meaning from it will always come up empty.

I do find the example you used of country music to be interesting, and it does make some sense. I didn't like country music when I was a kid, because I wasn't brought up around it. Now I do love it, probably because I'm a lonely broken hearted old man, and I understand the content.

As for "info on what life events and psychological states find resonance with certain genres or artists of music", I'm afraid that's all up to you, and will always be personal.