Music is part of everyday life in our culture. It surrounds us from morning to night, desired or unwanted, conscious or unconscious, in the foreground or as an acoustic background. Everybody knows, or at least has heard it before, that music can and partly should influence us. But only scientific studies ultimately prove the controversial effect of music. This paper summarizes all studies, experiments and research published to date from the early 19th century onwards that prove the effect of music on our organism. The aim of the work is to provide a comprehensive insight into the effect of music that has been proven so far.