Why do humans like music so much?
#
In this article, we will discuss why do humans like music so much.
We don’t know. Babies are not born with an inherent response to (and understanding of) music. And there is no agreed theory of why we like it (and most humans do), and how this behaviour is passed on. But h [ere are some ideas.
What do we know? Music exists in almost every human culture on earth. The oldest discovered musical instruments date back over 40,000 years to the Stone Age. But scientists believe music itself could be much older than that, originating alongside (or even before) language in early pre-human communication.
But .. why did music become so ubiquitously woven into the human experience over the millennia? Evolutionary psychologists argue it conferred significant survival advantages to our ancestors – i.e. early humans that were good are music may have been more likely to survive. More about evolution later.
Let’s go way back …
The early Cambrian period, 520 million years ago – and you are a trilobite moving along the seafloor. Silt, silt, silt, then something different so you try to eat it only because it’s different. All the while your upward directed eyes have noted no change in the light coming from above. Suddenly the light dims and so you burrow to escape a potential predator. We are geared to respond to novelty from the very beginning.
But not all change is harmful and animals learn to look for positive change in the immediate vicinity as well as to avoid harmful change. That is pure stimulus-response. Human babies do not have an innate response to music. But the sounds of music are often accompanied by attention from a parent so the enjoyment of one is paired with the other.
Simple forms of music
Children learn to appreciate musical forms incrementally; which is why they bounce and dance to simple forms of music while ignoring classical. Early pairing of music and reward leads to music being a reward in itself, rather than being tied to another external reward. It’s the same reward pattern that gives us a thrill when we beat a computer game even though no one else knows about it.
Music is novel so we pay attention to it. We learn that it’s not a threat even though it’s of the same volume as parents fighting. One is paired with reward, the other with anxiety. We then seek out reward just the same way that we did as trilobites.
Evolutionary advantage
As well as reward, music is also tied up with our ability to remember things. And so, it may have evolved as language evolved (or did pre-humans drum before they could speak?). Certainly, the average person given the first line or title of a song, can often recite the whole set of lyrics. This is true for hundreds of songs, some only heard a few times, or decades ago. In other words, better musical ability may reflect better memory, which has survival advantages.
Whenever it was that the human brain was evolving its ability to organise and remember information, it may have been in a musical or chanting context. We sang or chanted the directions to the various hunting grounds, we sang or chanted the dates when animal migrations went through, when the rains came, and the signs of the changing seasons. To this day children have better recall when information is set to music.
The ability to sing may have conferred some advantage in sexual selection. People sing, like birds sing, to demonstrate their neuro-muscular coordination among other things – and to attract a mate. If a birds sings beautifully, it may be important for their survival.
Next question ..
But after music has become established in early childhood, why does it continue?
Is it just the association with reward? Or is there something else?
- Humans have a tendency to mimic what they see/know, and the rhythmical nature of music allows people to repeat what others do. This, whether instinctual or a learnt behaviour, leads to feeling good when listening to sounds in a predictable pattern
- Linked to stimulus/reward theory above, music may be linked to motherese, or the kind of gestures and sounds mothers make to communicate with their babies. The rhythmical nature and sing-song sound of such communication is something we associate with safety and emotional connection as we grow
- Music may also have roots in co-operative, communal behaviour; and appreciation of music may be psychologically linked to a sense of belonging. There may be a reason music is usually associated with community and communal activities (such as dancing).
Alternatively, it may be that there is no inherent ‘pull’ towards (or appreciation of) music, and it is something we merely learn to appreciate. But the ubiquity of music across cultures (and the fact that music is probably at least 40,000 years old) makes this somewhat unlikely.
Summary
We have discussed why humans like music so much. We don’t know. It may have originated in primitive animals, as part of stimulus/reward behaviour. Later, this led to evolutionary survival advantages as pre-humans (perhaps without language), were better able to organise their lives, and remember things. Later still in human development, the link to co-operative communal behaviour, may be why music has become so ubiquitous in human society.
