I see analogues of musical concepts in all manner of time-based phenomena, and I think the first hypothesis about predictability was on the right track. — Pfhorrest
Sound is all about patterns of changes over time (pitch is just frequency), and all kinds of musical concepts are further refinements upon that (harmony is when multiple frequencies share certain relationships, rhythm and tempo are also all about frequency of notes). Musical ups and downs, breaks and shifts, all all about establishing and then changing patterns over time. — Pfhorrest
I think we’re wired to have emotional responses to patterns like that more generally, to get bored of repetition but also to fear unpredictable change, to get intrigued by noticing patterns and the relationships between patterns, etc, and music just directly pushes all those emotional buttons in the most straightforward way divorced from any broader real-world context. — Pfhorrest
How do you know this? Why not percussion first? Could we have g before we gave meaning? If not, why not? — Benkei
It seems highly unlikely song as we know it came first. We would expect to observe this behavior in at least one nonlinguistic animal. — hypericin
directly pushing emotional buttons — Pfhorrest
Music is somehow mystical in the sense that it has a sort of universality relative to human emotions and passions. Sad music makes us sad regardless of our race and culture the same way that joyous music make us, welp, happy. This is especially the case for musical compositions without linguistic conflation which I would say is why they are most effective for enhancing scenes in films. Sometimes, lyrics ruin the song but if done right, it actually enhances our experience of it. By "done right", I'm not suggesting a universal structure of lyrical composition that makes all songs good. Lyrics step into culture, so it's a given that it loses its universality, but if songs with lyrics are directed to certain cultures and are consumed by these cultures, then to them it would have been "done right." This is why some westerners may not really appreciate, say, Vietnamese music or why there's even a divide between K-pop stans and the rest of the world.
This is also why I enjoy cute anime music and get shamed for it (ノ´ヮ`)ノ*: ・゚ — Nagel
Every music lover will agree that their favorite music places them in a spiritual, exalted state. This concords with the function of music: to place the listener in a state of spiritual ecstasy, and impart the impression of meaning and significance which the words of the song would not otherwise possess. — hypericin
I think we like or dislike music because we were made this way.
Probably some people use it in this way. — Jack Cummins
Sad music makes us sad regardless of our race and culture the same way that joyous music make us, welp, happy. — Nagel
I suppose with the decline of religion and spiritualism and the rise of the materialstic spirit musicians have had to adapt and explore other avenues of clicking with their audience - politics, social issues, romance, philosophy, etc. all are now game so long as there's a willing audience ready to listen and, most importantly, ready to pay the price for the performance. — TheMadFool
Yes, and I also think that marketing - which has infested everything, including religion and spirituality - plays an instrumental (no pun intended) role. — Tom Storm
Marketing creates... markets. Often for things of dubious quality. Hence the money spent on it. I learned early on with children that if they see it on TV they want it. If they hear it on the radio, they want it. If it has a cool clip, they want it. If it is in a movie, they want it. Etc. — Tom Storm
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