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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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As a young man I enjoyed listening to a particular series of French instructional programs. I didn’t understand a word, but was nevertheless enthralled. Was it because the sounds of human speech are thrilling? Not really. Speech sounds alone, stripped of their meaning, don’t inspire. We don’t wake up to alarm clocks blaring German speech. We don’t drive to work listening to native spoken Eskimo, and then switch it to the Bushmen Click station during the commercials. Speech sounds don’t give us the chills, and they don’t make us cry – not even French.
But music does emanate from our alarm clocks in the morning, and fill our cars, and give us chills, and make us cry. According to a recent paper by Nidhya Logeswaran and Joydeep Bhattacharya from the University of London, music even affects how we see visual images. In the experiment, 30 subjects were presented with a series of happy or sad musical excerpts. After listening to the snippets, the subjects were shown a photograph of a face. Some people were shown a happy face – the person was smiling - while others were exposed to a sad or neutral facial expression. The participants were then asked to rate the emotional content of the face on a 7-point scale, where 1 mean extremely sad and 7 extremely happy.
The researchers found that music powerfully influenced the emotional ratings of the faces. Happy music made happy faces seem even happier while sad music exaggerated the melancholy of a frown. A similar effect was also observed with neutral faces. The simple moral is that the emotions of music are “cross-modal,” and can easily spread from sensory system to another. Now I never sit down to my wife’s meals without first putting on a jolly Sousa march.
Although it probably seems obvious that music can evoke emotions, it is to this day not clear why. Why doesn’t music feel like listening to speech sounds, or animal calls, or garbage disposals? Why is music nice to listen to? Why does music get blessed with a multi-billion dollar industry, whereas there is no market for “easy listening” speech sounds?
In an effort to answer, let’s first ask why I was listening to French instructional programs in the first place. The truth is, I wasn’t just listening. I was watching them on public television. What kept my attention was not the meaningless-to-me speech sounds (I was a slow learner), but the young French actress. Her hair, her smile, her mannerisms, her pout… I digress. The show was a pleasure to watch because of the humans it showed, especially the exhibited expressions and behaviors.
The lion share of emotionally evocative stimuli in the lives of our ancestors would have been from the faces and bodies of other people, and if one finds human artifacts that are highly evocative, it is a good hunch that it looks or sounds human in some way.
As evidence that humans are the principal source of emotionality among human artifacts, consider human visual signs. Visual signs, I have argued, have culturally evolved to look like natural objects, and have the kinds of contour combinations found in a three-dimensional world of opaque objects. Three-dimensional world of opaque objects? Nothing particularly human about that, and that’s why most linguistic signs – like the letters and words on this page – are not emotionally evocative to look at.
But visual signs do sometimes have emotional associations. For example, colors are notoriously emotionally evocative, and arguments about what color something should be painted are the source of an alarming number of marital arguments. And “V” stimuli, such as that yield sign on the street, have long been realized (within the human factors literature) to serve as the most evocative geometrical shape for warning symbols. But notice that color and “V” stimuli are plausibly about human expression. In particular, color has recently been argued to be “about” human skin and the exhibited emotions – which is why red grabs our attention, since it's associated with blushing and blood - and “V” stimuli have been suggested to be “about” angry faces (namely, angry eyebrows).
Which brings us back to music and the Logeswaran paper. Music is exquisitely emotionally evocative, which is why a touch of happy music makes even unrelated pictures seem more pleasant. In light of the above, then, we are led to the conclusion that the artifact of music should contain some distinctly human elements.
The question, of course, is what those elements are. One candidate is our expressive speech – perhaps music is just an abstract form of language. However, most of the emotion of language is in the meaning, which is why foreign languages that we don’t understand rarely make us swoon with pleasure or get angry. That’s also why emotional speech from an unfamiliar language isn’t featured on the radio!
But there is a second auditory expressive behavior we humans carry out – our bodily movements themselves. Human movement has been conjectured to underlie music as far back as the Greeks. As a hypothesis this has the advantage that we have auditory systems capable of making sense of the sounds of people moving in our midst – an angry stomper approaching, a delicate lilter passing, and so on. Some of these movements trigger positive emotions – they conjure up images of pleasant activities – while others might be automatically associated with fear or anxiety. (The sound of running makes us wonder what we’re running from.) If music were speech-driven, then it is missing out on the largest part of speech’s expressiveness – the meaning. But if music sounds like human expressive movements, then it sounds like something that, all by itself, is rich in emotional expressiveness, and can be easily interpreted by the auditory system.
Regardless of whether music is emotional intonation from speech or a summary of expressive movements – or something else altogether – the new research by Logeswaran and Bhattacharya adds yet more fuel to the expectation that music has been culturally selected to sound like an emotionally expressive human. While it is not easy for us to see the human ingredients in the modulations of pitch, intensity, tempo and rhythm that make music, perhaps it is obvious to our auditory homunculus.
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72 Comments
Add CommentI have often wondered, if music is pleasing or not pleasing (emotional) depending on the energy cost to our brains in trying to organize it into something meaningful? If even before symbols, internal or cultural, come into play, that chord progressions or tones and their harmonics are simply easier to physiologically organize and are therefore more pleasing while trying to organize noise just consumes too much energy?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeautiful. This article describes music in such a way as to further solidify my belief that I must dedicate my life to music.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight on, Mavstar,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt just vibrates on the right right frequencies--music, that is . . .
Right on, Mavstar . . . it just vibrates on the right frequencies--music, that is . . .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic is deep. People are shallow, and want to feel deeply. Music lubricates our capacities to emote. I could not live with out it.
The music industry is no longer blessed with a multi-billion dollar bank account. That used to be the case, but someone broke the piggy bank a while back.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJanet Hansen
Scout66.com
The music is no longer the multi-billion dollar industry it once was. Someone broke the piggy bank a while back and forgot to put it back together again.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJanet Hansen
Scout66.com
I like this hypothesis. Music inspires dance, doesn't it? Further evidence that music and movement are related.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIve noticed whale songs also cause emotion in everyone (at least everyone i know).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy could that be, if a whale is not human?
this article doesnt really explain much. when i "listen" to music im not looking at a person or imagining a person. Im listening. with my ears and my mind. this makes me feel things. i prefer music without visual stimulation. Thats the point of a lot of music. The question he didnt answer is why do we feel music? Whether its a driving bassline, a blistering quitar solo, a complicated piano concerto, or even a dj scratching records, when i hear the music that i like, it affects me sometimes very deeply. How come humans seem to be the only animal that makes music seperate from communication or mating? thats a question worthy of scientific america.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthank you
This essay didn't answer the question it set out to. Rhythm is emotional because it is literally within us. Our heartbeat is sound of life. Just like the color red is so stirring because it evokes our primitive response to seeing blood. The "happy" major scale that we know today was developed by the Greeks because they found it the most pleasing series of 8 tones. Any deviation from the major notes created a "sad" group of sounds, or the minor scale. Other cultures have different notions of "happy" and "sad" music because their scales are different. So, our sense of music evoking a specific emotional response with respect to melody is largely taught. The response to rhythm, however, I believe is universal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis essay didn't answer the question it set out to. Rhythm is emotional because it is literally within us. Our heartbeat is sound of life. Just like the color red is so stirring because it evokes our primitive response to seeing blood. The "happy" major scale that we know today was developed by the Greeks because they found it the most pleasing series of 8 tones. Any deviation from the major notes created a "sad" group of sounds, or the minor scale. Other cultures have different notions of "happy" and "sad" music because their scales are different. So, our sense of music evoking a specific emotional response with respect to melody is largely taught. The response to rhythm, however, I believe is universal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs the "New Study" that is mentioned in the title actually the author's book "The Vision Revolution" ? I didn't find too much in this article to be insightful, but I don't mean to give it short shrift. The linkage between music and movement, is an interesting idea and perhaps this is more fully developed in the book. Since music, as we refer to it, is artificial in the sense that it is created, I've thought that the beauty of music might be in how it might resemble or integrate other sensory stimuli once it hits the nervous system. Perhaps there are elements within music that evoke emotional reactions because of the resemblance to sounds like cries, laughter, growls, yelling, and so on. The fact that music is fluid, continuous, wide ranging, multi-voice may exploit those faculties designed for more pragmatic purposes and create a deeper experience. Ok, that's all nothing more than talking, not researching, but the authors analysis just seems overly narrow and shallow. I'll have to see what kind of research was actually done in his book.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur minds seek patterns. Music is really tonal mathematical equations which our brains recognize as patterns. Merc80s points out that different cultures have different scales for altering moods and I would agree that everyone on the planet would not be affected the same way by the same series of tones. Emotional responses to music seem to me to be learned, not innate. To me, the question of why some people have great or no musical talent is much more interesting. A tone deaf person could hum a happy tune and it would only be annoying to a person with perfect pitch.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMerc80s...You must be a drummer to believe rhythm is universal! Let's jam! I find it very interesting that I can keep perfect rhythm on my guitar or bass, but I've tried to learn drums and find it impossible. So when I record my own music, I have to use a drum machine. I've also seen some pretty sorry excuses for rhythm on the dance floor in my time. Possibly alcohol induced. Isn't baroque music supposed to be heart beat rhythm? Same with classical waltz? Rhythm is also pattern recognition by our brains and is as universal and natural as you suggest.
I disagree that music in a foreign language we don't understand rarely evokes feelings. For example, Opera has always had a deep emotional impact on me as on many others. I wish I understood French, Italian and German well but I don't. Nevertheless, even if only hearing the Opera (not watching it), I can distinguish the different moods and emotional states just by the voice and music alone. I'm sure millions more experiment the same thing. And, surely, this isn't restricted to Opera. So I think we have further to go on really understanding the reasons behind music's incredible impact on the human mind.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think the author's logic is very clear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"most of the emotion of language is in the meaning" - true however, not necessarily in words, but often in the tones, and body language. In face more often. It is not hard to tell that someone is angry not matter what language they are speaking.
"there is a second auditory expressive behavior we humans carry out our bodily movements " - this is a visual not an auditory part of our language. I will grant that there is a sound to certain movements, however, I find it a large leap to say "music sounds like human expressive movements". If music is associated in our brains with movement, how does the author explain which emotion goes to which music?
If for example we have learned (or evolved - whichever) a deeper association of music with the sounds of natural movement, why wouldn't we associate running with a faster rhythm? And if so - since running (until quite recently) was a result of fear or hunting would we not associate fear or aggression with these beats. Instead we generally associate the faster beat with something joyful, possibly sexual and are more inclined to dance.
Of course, I don't have an alternative theory. There is no denying that rhythm does have a motivating momentum. But in my mind its not the entirely emotional part of the music. It is the more the way certain notes are played in a certain pattern. There are instances of the same musical piece being played with different emphasis, subtly changing its pattern and emphasis on certain notes, and therefore evoking a different emotional mood. I don't have any thoughts on what causes it though. I don't think it just the rhythm though.
If anything is culturally remembered it would seem more likely that it was thousands of years of campfire dances.
I wonder if it could be related to what we hear in the womb.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if our emotions are stimulated by music that is similar to the sound we heard in the womb.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUncle Buck...I recall my daughter kicking in the womb to the beat of Ramblin by Led Zep. Also I spoke every night to her in a low voice. And after her birth, the nurses were amazed that I was the one who calmed her with my low voice. There was NEVER any baby talk in our household. Now my 11 year old is a pure rocker. Thanks for letting me share this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnfortunately, this idea does not deal with how I am made to feel when I listen to certain opera tracks on CD. Some tracks arouse very strong feelings, even when I have no idea what they are singing about. And it is not related to the human voice. Something like Barber's adagio has a very compelling effect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjohnB
Music is a language full of meaning universally understood. Because we process music using both sides of our brain evenly, language relies more on the left and to a lesser degree our right. Oliver Sachs calls us a musical species . Evidence suggests that it is indeed an evolutionary adaptation that calls upon the human minds special bond between music, memories, movement, and emotions. Language and the sensorimotor system are critically linked. Anthropologist Philip Lieberman, of Brown University, argues that language is an embodied practice . In Lieberman's most recent book, Toward an evolutionary biology of language, he demonstrates the central role of speech in human language and that, contrary to Chomsky and Pinker, the brain bases of language, thinking, and motor control are intertwined. Brain regions associated with action selection and reinforcement learning, and others regulating motor control, including speech production, as well as cognitive processes including the way words are put together to form a sentence, are linked.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGiven that music is an unique language in that it makes us dance, consider: the findings of neurobiologists Aaron R. Seitz and Hubert R. Dinse: Optimization of sensory inputs (such as by synchronization or multisensory stimulation) . . . can also boost signals that normally are insufficient to surpass this learning threshold. As Daniel Levitin explains: music activates a part in the frontal lobe that helps us predict what comes next in a sequence. Furthermore, One study, led by Ladan Shams, observed illusionary effects from a single visual flash of light when it was accompanied by two beeping soundsthe single flash was mis-perceived as two flashes. They argue that this and subsequent research have shown that sound can modulate visual perception and tactile stimuli. Jessica Phillips-Silver and Laurel J. Trainor tested seven month-old infants at their baby lab at McMaster University in Canada and discovered: if you dance a waltz rather than a jig, your baby will prefer the waltz. They also explain that it is the movement of the head and activating of the vestibular system, more than the limbs, that cause metrical encoding to take place.
I agree with notslic. I think we are all hardwired to seek patterns and our individual tastes in music (whether cultural dependent or innate) simply depends on which patterns we find pleasant. I imagine the same holds true for visual stimuli such as art.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNotslic, you also have great taste in music BTW. Led Zep is one of the greats.
Of course a baby will prefer the waltz. The beat is like the heartbeat that the baby has been hearing for its entire existence, a 3 beat rhythm with the emphasis on 2 and 3. The rest of all your fancy speech simply refers to patternicity. I love music too, but it's not that complicated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerpetual Curiosity...I would kill myself if my daughter liked rap. Interesting thought about art. If music was as magical as Sue thinks, we would all like every kind of music. But preferences are apparent. Same with art. Good art and music are like pornography...I couldn't define it, but I know it when I see (or hear) it. And let's not forget that humans created music. It is not something that we have evolved a reaction to in our brains. We created it for enjoyment, so why is it surprising that it is pleasant?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheers.
King Bill...But think of the complexity of symphonic music. Although there are many instruments playing melody and harmony, our brains arrange it into a simple, pleasing form. We don't have to seperately define the many complex tones. We simply enjoy the elaborate mixture of sounds. Some people, conductors for example, have the ability to separate the sounds and analyze them individually. This goes to my earlier question ragarding why some people have extraordinary musical abilities and others are tone deaf. I can't think of any evolutionary advantage or causation that would differentiate these people. More ammo for my thoughts that musical appreciation is learned, not innate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi agree with Merc80s...the comfort of rhythm, tempo and sounds/pitches roots as far back as listening to the beat of our mother's heart. musical tempos reflect speeds of heart beats, which generally manifest a state of being.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit would also be interesting to observe not the music itself, as sound, but actually frequencies. the 'art of sound' shown on youtube demonstrates that different pitches resonates different patterns in spilled sand: this is sure to have an effect on us too.
at any rate, these questions pull us back to the old question of whether senses conditions thought or thought senses ~ should the former be true, it might be worthwhile broadcasting positive news every now and then!
This is a fascinating topic, and one close to mine and many others' hearts. But I agree with Merc80s that this article is rather simplistic. Its hypothesis -- that Rhythm is inherently evocative -- seems sound, but is only one of many characteristics of music. Major/minor tonality is the primary characteristic nearly any musician would associate with an emotional response. Why wouldn't the author discuss this?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, as Merc80s pointed out, emotional response to music is extremely subjective, not only between cultural groups, but also between individuals. I have bipolar disorder, and I have found that music can often lift me out of a deep depression (NOTE: depression -- mood -- is very different to emotion, but the two are nonetheless linked). But it is not music that anyone would label "happy" that does this for me. It is loud, angry, punk and metal music that delivers. Most people (my wife included!) would not associate such music with positive emotions, or positive changes in mood. But I do.
I think that there are trends that researchers can identify in people's emotional response to music, but I propose that they are highly subjective and will differ greatly from one individual to another.
Joe.
"But if music sounds like human expressive movements, then it sounds like something that, all by itself, is rich in emotional expressiveness, and can be easily interpreted by the auditory system."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPffff! Please.
None of the other theories in the comments are worth responding to.
I don't know why music evokes emotion, but I do have a partial theory about how music works, and that regards what it "refers" to. Music (wordless music) is unusual among the arts in that it seems to have no referent. It is not "about" anything (and I am leaving out "program" music that tells a specific story and the like.) It is nearly completely abstract.
People will often speculate about what music really refers to. The author's inane theory is that music refers to human expressive movements. One composer thought music was rooted in bird song. One comment here says it is rooted in the human heartbeat.
My theory is that music "refers" to the passage of time. Tools such as rhythm, melody or harmony give structure to time, and modulate that structure, causing our sense of the flow of time to slow down or speed up, or to repeat in a loop. A chordal progression can create an expectation of what will come next (e.g., the "shave and a haircut - two bits" progression) and so create a sense of anticipation, of time slowing down. And melodies or harmonic progressions can "label" a particular bit of time, so that when the melody or progression returns, that previous moment is evoked. That can create the sense that time has looped back on itself, or that time has sort of bidden farewell to that earlier moment and is now moving on.
That is the reason that more so than other arts, music gives the impression that something is happening RIGHT NOW, even though the music was composed or performed sometime in the past. Other sequential art forms such as novels or plays give that feeling also, but it is also possible to think of them as "things" existing outside of time, like a statue or painting. For example, you can can skip back in a novel and return to your original place without feeling like you have stopped the actual story in its tracks. But with a piece of music, it is very difficult to think of it a "thing." It is much easier to think of it as a "story" or "series of events." You cannot skip back to an earlier section without feeling like you have "interrupted" something.
But I am still waiting for somebody to tell me why a minor chord sounds "sad" while a major chord sounds "happy.
A group of researchers from Norway and Hungary discovered that two-day old infants have a sense of rhythm enough to decipher when a rock rhythm skips a standard base beat. This capacity, called beat induction, might appear to be unique to humans, but evidence is mounting that it's not. See an interview with Ani Patel on Snowball: the dancing cockatoo for proof (http://tinyurl.com/phjlbz).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOur sense of rhythm is innate. Tasuku Sugimoto and Kazuhide Hashiya of Kyushu University in Japan lead a research team testing how a baby chimpanzee, never before exposed to music, responded to consonant and dissonant melodies. After observing the young chimp as she aged from 17 weeks to 23 weeks, the team concluded that the chimp voluntarily took control to listen most frequently to the more pleasant consonant music. “Our main surprise was the results being so consistent” said Hashiya. As he argues, “The preference. . . has implications for the debate surrounding human uniqueness in the capacity for music appreciation.”
Nonetheless, humankind’s profound capacity to create and respond to music is unique. We may well have developed musical abilities because babies indirectly taught us rhythm. While in the womb, the first rhythm a baby hears is its mother's heartbeat. In utero infants coordinate their pulse and breathing to match their mother's. Thus caregivers of infants naturally take to rocking babies to soothe them (and use sing-song motherese) --because it works. Until our dying days, music is the most steadfast cultural expression that brings us comfort and enlivens our senses and emotions.
Sorry, Sue, but think about reality here. The song "Money" by Pink Floyd is a 7 beat, and one of the most popular songs in modern history. It continues on a 7 beat during the sax solo then changes to an 8 beat during the guitar solo, back to a 7 beat during the refrain. The hook is in the lyrics. Music is not that complicated or magical. I love it because of its mathematical simplicity and lyrical charm. A physicist could do the math in his/her sleep.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJokester...do you carry your ipod for that necessary jolt of crankin punk or metal? I do. Cheers to the Dimebag and Kurt. May their spirits carry you. I saw Kurt's last concert in Dec. 93 at San Diego Sports Arena with my future and forever wife. The Butthole Surfers' sound sucked, but Nirvana's was perfect. I was trying to learn a Dimebag transcription when my neighbor came over and told me he had been murdered. "In Britain we call that creepy". Good luck, mate.
Drums? I dabble, but it's not my best suit. I've played the cello and the guitar since I was 8 years old and played in orchestras and rock bands nearly my whole life. This article was irritating because it was clearly written by someone who knew nothing about the visceral experience of rhythm or melody. If you're in Houston, I'd love to jam!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe argument that the evocation of color is related to the skin color doesn't make sense. How does this explain that blue relaxes and yellow alarms?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour theory about the reference to the passing of time doesn't make sense of the different effects of speech and music...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry Notslic ... I didn't catch your response until I checked on the health care thread. I am NOT a music lover. I have posed exactly the same question you pose here about music --- but from the other end.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am tone deaf; I find most music a background annoyance; can't remember a performer's name or the names of their songs or music; married a wife who couldn't dance either. I have read two or three text books explaining music; both technically and artistically. To me music still boils down to four modifiers: loud, soft, tolerable and Gawd awful.
That is why the title "Why Does Music Make Us Feel?" caught my attention. Didn't help much. Most of the examples used in the article, I can explain to myself as feelings that are part of my cultural background mixed with nostalgia -- not the music or sound itself.
I wish there was a teaching computer program with plenty of repeatable examples that would show the difference between beats, melodies, pitches and harmonics. Maybe then I could really learn what those terms mean and be able to listen for them in piece of music.
King Bill...You said MOST music is background annoyance. Is there some that you enjoy? If so, you would be proof that the learning process is what drives music appreciation, due to your deafness of tone. I know already that you are not deaf to learning.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi notslic; My choice of words was being a bit factitious and meant as a bit of self-depricating humour -- however the nub is true. Yes there is much that I enjoy; oldies but goodies which are really nostalgia for youth and my dating years in the late 50's and early 60's. I have come to enjoy most classical music ( God save me from Wagner). I have a classical music station on right now playing music lowly in the background.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, whenever I have listened to music I like, I always hear intimations that far more is going on than I can grasp. That is why I have read and asked people for explanations in order to get at what I am missing. Yet I still remain deaf to any explanation.
I can't remember a piece or a musician either oldies or classical. I can recognize a piece after the first couple of bars as something judged likeable but I always have to wait for the announcer to tell what the music is named and who the artist(s) is.
The only things in my life I have had that kind of problem with memory is Latin, the rules to Cricket and music.
King Bill (I like that ... I could get used to the King part ... be careful)
P.S. I mis-stated that I saw your post in the Health thread, it was the teaching thread of course.
King Bill...I think what you are saying is that the theory that Merc80s and I have put forward, that musical appreciation is learned, rather than innate, rings true! Pun intended. You speak of connections to youth and dating. I played in a blues/rock band called The Unemployables. I can't seem to get too much into new music. It seems that all the really good ideas have been written already. I put on the same old rock cds, Clapton, Hendrix, Rush, etc. and crank up the Marshall and Strat and play the same old riffs that I learned 30 years ago. But they never get old for me. Music can be very comforting. But in a different way for us all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, classical music for me is more like math. The complexities make me think harder and analyze more. I try and pick out the harmonies of the various instruments without just sitting back and enjoying it. I like to think that this is because of my appreciation of MUSICIANSHIP, rather than my liking the music itself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNotslic ... I can safely assume then that you remember the Rules for Cricket.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards King Bill
The article leaves out what I think is the most important reason for the development of music in cultures: it's a mnemonic device. The principle form of communicating culture and history in pre-literate societies was the bard. The bard needed to remember hours and hours of poetry, and the combination of meter, rhyme and song enabled him to do so. Why music works as a mnemonic device is that if a melodic line is memorable, it will help in remembering the attached words. Similarly, the rhythm and melody of dance music not only provide a structure for the dance, but aid the dancer in remembering what he's supposed to do.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInept, illiterate, shallow, illogical, fatuous, junk science at the lowest level, embarrassing to read this in SciAm. For one thing, the idea that musical emotions are cross-modal is not a "moral". (Nor are Sousa marches jolly; nor do we listen to the alarm clock for inspiration). And where is the evidence that non-musical emotions are not also cross-modal? Finally, we understand why we don't listen to foreign languages???? Give me a break.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'French in Action' was hot because the girl - Mirelle - was hot. I loved it too!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTotally uninspiring. Everything stated here can be attributed to previously discussed ideas. I doubt one needs a "university paper" to tell us music affects how we see images or that visual signs sometimes have emotional messages or music may emulate human sounds or movements. In the areas of art, science too often arrives at disappointing explanations when attempting to provide answers with scientific studies and controlled research. Aesthetic experiences in music may just be in the same category as "when was the beginning of time... and what was before that?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn excellent radiolab story was produced describing sound as a sense of 'distance touch' located here:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/04/21/segments/58280
This echoes observations I've heard in interviews with blind participants who lament losing sight, another 'distance' sense.
Totally uninspiring. Everything stated here can be attributed to previously discussed ideas. I doubt one needs a "university paper" to tell us music affects how we see images or that visual signs sometimes have emotional messages or music may emulate human sounds or movements. In the areas of art, science too often arrives at disappointing explanations when attempting to provide answers with scientific studies and controlled research. Aesthetic experiences in music may just be in the same category as "when was the beginning of time... and what was before that?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKing Bill...I know some of the rules, but I can tell you that a 5 day test is the single most boring sporting event on the planet. Sometimes there can be one batsman for the whole 5 days. Creepy. The level of discussion sure deteriorates quickly at this site. I'm going to try Newscientist and see if it's better. Did you see that they have gay porn at SA now? I'm moving on...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've all ways thought music is the instinctive language.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic even encourages us to mentally ingest and believe things whether true or not, such as songs which are proposing that we can be legitimate 'victims' of relationships. The music is sweet, and seductive, the lyrics can leave you brain washed :D
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell said. Sad or happy emotions correlated with music is something conditioned from movies, songs and their lyrics and the sounds of songs we remember from our childhood. Rhythm as you said, is more the universal since faster rhythms promote excitement on many levels. Higher frequencies of sound have faster wavelengths. When humans are scared and adrenaline increases our heartrate and we run quickly. The way sounds come together as pleasant or unpleasant can be explained by mathematics. Certain frequencies just mesh more smoothly together and create less conflict, they are simpler.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand as far as listening to foreign languages in the morning? maybe if we hear german dialogue during the happy parts of a movie we would associate the sound of german speech with happier things and then interpret our surrounds more favorably.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article also based research on how 30 people reacted. What cultures were these individuals from? 30 participants is harldy a solid testing population to represent mankind...
melodious music heard in silence drives me to the state of
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbrahmanandham,dont feel like expecting for self.
i have brought up my grandchild in
such a way from the day 15 of his birth that he silences with music
A little off topic, but I believe the word Eskimo (meaning raw meat eater?) is offensive to the Inuit. Anyway back to the music, it is intersting that to those who have developed an 'ear' (even a mediocre one), an off-pitch note or the wrong note in a scale can seem almost painful...certainly unpleasant. It would appear then that there is a degree of association between melody/tempo/timbre/etc and emotion, would it be possible to pair a 'thrash metal' sound with happiness or Masssenet's Meditation from Thais with anger? BTW my 6 yo is learning violin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find sound, music,voices etc facinateing. Born deaf, the idea that a rythem is universal, fails. I can feel the bass, the lower, hidden part of a song meant to compliment. While repetiteive, its constant,perfect timeing strives to impart on me more... feeling its change i can sense the rest of the "song" it ...pauses, it tries, then it returns to its constant insistance, based on that I dont think rhythem can be emotional on its own. I have also noticed that when ppl resort to their headphones, they are asking for something, they are prepareing their mind in a way that invites the coos of music. in watching, it reminds of the 1800's countrymen, disarming themselves at the door, before a town meeting. They are prepareing for something out of the ordinary means of communication. no threat? help me say this someone
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow timely :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissomeone just forwarded me this article and I only have three hours remaining to write on a similar subject from the perspective of being a musician, rhythm educator, and movement analyst. I am hoping to be able to add some insights on this after my writing is handed to one of the world's most recorded drummers. I'll post soon. Thank you, its inspiring.
It's true, that music must vibrate the certain frequencies to be considered such, and further, to be felt in any certain way, which is Universal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou do not mentiion the strong emotional pulll of much rewligious music
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI question whether red grabs our attention because it's associated with blushing and blood. It seems more likely that it's at the end of the visible wave spectrum that's most pleasant to us. With regard to music, we may like the beat of music because the rhythm relates to coordination and timing, similar to the rhythm of our heart, or shooting a turkey in the wild, or dodging a series of projectiles coming at us. The harmony could be due to mathematical relationships between the wavelengths of musical notes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm a dancer, and I was wondering what is it exactly that makes us feel music?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm a dancer, and I was wondering what is it exactly that makes us feel music? Like when I dance, I constantly think to myself, "What is this?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNever mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you, this is an informative piece of writing that explains an abstract concept with finesse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlfred Thutloa, Stellenbosch University
*$!!hi my name is bob and i liked this blurb!!$*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishello im bob, and i really like this blog
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think I have the answer: By using Occam's Razor, I started to think of the best possible answer. I think we feel music because sound and soundwaves have always been around and arranged in some kind of specific wavelengths since the beggining of this universe. Heat, energy, and particles on the most quantum level emit some sort of vibrations, which may not be audible to our ears, but have always been there. Thus since we are made of these "energies", and particles, we are natural drawn to "like" wavelengths. I guess the bigger question, is why do we relate everything to sound? Why do look at stars/planets, and convert their radiation into audible soundwaves? Why do we bang on stuff to get a noise or "beat"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSimply because sound is "universal" and since we are made of stardust and gases formed into complex structures, we are just sound in an arranged "piece" ourselves. Much like an artist creating an arranged piece of music with the right notes, melodies, phrasings, and beats, we are the right arrangements of elements. It would be interesting to do an expirement on matching our internal system to a song or musical "piece" hmmm...
Is the music would also deplete our energy, if the music was too much fun when we're feeling happy, or when we're listening to music that supports our anger?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery interesting article to read.
http://musichard.com
While the ideas expressed in this article could well be true, I would have to add that it has not looked at the whole picture. It is well known, especially to animal owners, that classical music really affects dogs and cats (and probably other animals). My own cat turns happy, content, and relaxed to much Baroque music, but at the same time a load symphony or some rock music might make his ears perk up and his facial expression annoyed and alert. Music affects animals emotionally as well as people. So it cannot be wholy about human expression, it has to be something at a deeper level common to people and animals. Possibly people feel it to a more complex level. BTW my local Animal Hospital plays classical music in its waiting room, and it calms the animals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is bullshit, music is harmonical t0 us as humans because we need to fit in to a certain culture. This goes back to religion, customs, tribes etc,,,Try playing happy hardcore to a emo kid or goth! Its their tribe, it comes with the need to fit in and join a gang. if you dont know who you are, they'll tell you. Family, religion, tribes, association is ALL to blame for this. The reason it makes u feel good is a sense of belonging and when it gets popular a sense of self gratitude for u and ur family. And as for the difference between random noise,(trash cans being picked up) and structured sound melodics, only proves this point. The Whole world was built from chaos into order!! Kids love a schedule and rules they need it inorder to make them grow healthy and so do we. Order out of chaos, its like sweet music!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWriting a great article is about flair and passion. You obviously have passion and flair which is evidenced in this article. You keep your readers’ interest from the first sentence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://my-blackhawkmines.com/
the reason i came here to read this article was because i wanted to find out why listening to the melody (NOT the lyrics) Fun.'s "Some Nights" or Florence + the Machines' live version of "Shake It Out" or even Kesha's "Die Young" brings a strong emotion in me that I can't seem to describe exactly. It's almost nostalgic but I really don't have anything to be nostalgic about this moment? it literally brings shivers to my spine like i am soaring above the seat and this building i am in and i dont know why the hell that happens. What is with the combination of chords and tones in these songs that evoke that grand, epic, undescribable feeling of flying and nostalgia? anybody feel the same way? I was expecting to find the answer to this question in this article but it was not answered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo answer the question, why music can make emotions, you should know the Strebetendenz-Theory. It says listening music we identify with a will against the changing of dissonant overtone-intervals. On this way you can derive the emotional colors of musical chords and find the first method to explain, why music touches us emotionally. It is described in the essay "Vibrating Molecules and the Secret of their Feelings". You can get it on the link:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.willimekmusic.homepage.t-online.de/homepage/Striving/Striving.doc
If you understand German you can download the better translation on the link:
http://ebooks.ub.uni-muenchen.de/26791/
Enjoy reading
Bernd Willimek
To answer the question, why music can make emotions, you should know the Strebetendenz-Theory. It says listening music we identify with a will against the changing of dissonant overtone-intervals. On this way you can derive the emotional colors of musical chords and find the first method to explain, why music touches us emotionally. It is described in the essay "Vibrating Molecules and the Secret of their Feelings". You can get it on the link:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.willimekmusic.homepage.t-online.de/homepage/Striving/Striving.doc
If you understand German you can download the better translation on the link:
http://ebooks.ub.uni-muenchen.de/26791/
Enjoy reading
Bernd Willimek