Music to Your Brain
Understanding Human Nature Through Music
By Meredith Laing
July/August 2010Musical instruments, such as bone flutes dating back more than 30,000 years, are among the earliest human-made artifacts, so it's no surprise that music has played an important role in human history. "Anyone who wants to understand human nature, the interaction between brain and culture, between evolution, mind, and society, has to take a close look at the role that music has held in the lives of humans, at the way that music and people coevolved, each shaping the other," asserts Daniel J. Levitin in his bestselling book, The World in Six Songs.
Throughout history and to this day, music has been a daily part of people's lives; on average, Americans hear at least five hours of music per day. It is thought that the combination of an emotional message and a set form or structure is what makes music affect us the way that it does. Levitin, a music cognition researcher and author, explores this idea further, suggesting that the world's music can be categorized into six types of songs: those of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love.
Go to any busy bar on a weekend, and you'll likely hear the crowd singing along when their favorite songs come on. Similarly, at sporting events, you can hear fans joining together in a melody, enthusiastically chanting, "Let's go, [your team here], let's go!"
Making music, no matter how simple, forges a sense of camaraderie between people. Levitin says that this started with very early humans who would beat drums as they attacked their enemies. This both instilled fear in the victims and created, as Levitin explains, "emotional and neurochemical excitement" in the attackers, strengthening their alliance and prepping them for the attack. Today, that principle has translated into bonds of friendship through music.
The idea behind songs of joy is fairly self-explanatory, as not many people would argue with the fact that music is fun. Sting of The Police, who Levitin spoke with as a subject for his book, states, "I think the first song was just abstract fun with sound. You know, opening your mouth and going, 'Aaaaa Ooooo Aaaaa Eeeee Aye!'" (Think of the "Ee-oh-oh" chant at the end of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.")
Listening to music increases the production of dopamine—the feel-good hormone in the brain. This explains why joyous music is used in music therapy and in advertising. Actually playing or singing increases the effect, since we feel more joy when we can express it.
Oddly enough, it doesn't necessarily follow that we feel sorrow when hearing or playing music about sore subjects. Instead, sad songs are often a source of comfort for people. In The World in Six Songs, Levitin recalls playing in a country band in Oregon when he was younger, and being struck by the fact that the audience always seemed to enjoy singing along with songs of heartbreak and hard times. "A sad song brings us through stages of feeling understood, feeling less alone in the world, hopeful that if someone else recovered so will we, and we feel ultimately inspired that the sad experience led to something aesthetically pleasing," Levitin writes.
The beauty and emotion in music make it equally useful in facilitating memorization and passing on knowledge, marking ceremonious events and rituals, and understanding the ups and downs of love. "[A]cross history, song has been one of the primary ways in which life lessons are taught," Levitin explains. "Our ancestors discovered that well-formed songs, combining musical and rhythmic redundancies with lyric messages, facilitate both the encoding and transmission of important information ... " It turns out, music isn't just a pastime, but has had a vital part in the evolution of human nature.
For more information or to order the book The World In Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, by Daniel J. Levitin (Penguin Group, 2008), visit www.sixsongs.net.
