Why does music make us emotional?

Answer: The brain ties sounds to memories, expectations and feelings, and those links set off emotion

Musical notes directly change blood pressure, and that change is what creates the emotion — Music can raise or lower blood pressure, but those changes follow the emotional response rather than cause it. The brain interprets the sound first; the body then responds. A note has no direct line to the blood vessels, and the same note can leave one listener cold and move another to tears.

Sound travels from the ear straight to the heart and stirs feelings there — Hearing starts in the ear, but the signal goes to the brain, not to the heart. The brain's hearing areas decode the sound, and only then do emotion and memory circuits react; a pounding heart during a dramatic passage is the body's response to that emotion, not the route by which it arises.

The brain ties sounds to memories, expectations and feelings, and those links set off emotion ✓ — Correct! Music reaches emotion through several routes at once. A sudden loud chord triggers a startle reflex; a steady beat pulls heart rate and breathing along with it; a melody that sounds like a sorrowful or joyful voice makes us feel the same way by contagion; a tune tied to a moment in our past brings that moment back, memory and feeling together; and when a phrase resolves the way we expected, or surprises us, the brain's reward circuits respond, with dopamine rising at the peaks. No single mechanism explains every tear or shiver; it is the combination that makes music so powerful.