Why do we like music?

[Yoshi525]

Agree with cleric and SkuLL largely. As you say SkuLL, the entire cosmos is music. It all started with the vibration of a (super) string, the 'frequency' of which triggered a singularity resulting in the differentiation of '0' into '+1 and -1'. The vibration goes on, as does reality. Until the New World Order reveals the Arc of the Covenant and proceed to chant the Kabbalah activation lines, altering the fundamental resonance frequency of the universe and causing a dimensional collapse.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hassknecht]

As a physicist, I have to call bullshit on that.

 

[Yoshi525]

^ Oh you think?

Besides the general idea of superstring theory harmonics potentially relating to the thread, my post was not entirely cereal.

 

[Hassknecht]

^ Oh you think?

Besides the general idea of superstring theory harmonics potentially relating to the thread, my post was not entirely cereal.

I know, that whole post reeked too much of esotheric bullshittery to be serious

 

[Blakut]

As a physicist, I have to call bullshit on that.

Seconded. What physics?

 

[Hassknecht]

As a physicist, I have to call bullshit on that.

Seconded. What physics?

*ahem*
Not yet a physicist. I'm still a student, 5th semester.
I'm probably going into experimental particle physics.
Either elementary particles or astroparticles.
My dream would be working on nulcear fusion at Wendelstein 7X, but that's not gonna happen

 

[TheRatKing]

I disagree with "back and forth" (ohmy) concerning the fact that the love of music is hard wired.
It seems like music just happens to sound like things we're familiar with, be it speech or other things in nature. We have evolved to have a particular reaction to particular intervals (due to them being prevalent in nature) and rhythms and now that we have the capacity to reproduce them, we can enjoy those intervals and rhythms we've evolved to have a taste for.

I would think that "having a taste" for certain music is both genetic and cultural, i.e. we "learn" to like certain sounds just as we learn to like certain sights (faces, places).

Why does listening to a male bird's mating song make a female all hot and bothered? I'd venture that it's the same sort of evolutionary mechanism.

 

[AskWazzup]

Why does listening to a male bird's mating song make a female all hot and bothered? I'd venture that it's the same sort of evolutionary mechanism.

I don't, because we have no practical use for music, from a survival standpoint.

 

[Arr0nax]

Why does listening to a male bird's mating song make a female all hot and bothered? I'd venture that it's the same sort of evolutionary mechanism.

I don't, because we have no practical use for music, from a survival standpoint.

You don't have a practical use for your appendice either, yet you have one.

I think it's quite logical to assume the evolutionary advantage of having our perceptions, be they visual or auditive or whatever, engender positive and negative reactions in our brain.

If all perceptions were all grey and equal to us we wouldn't be very efficient as a mechanical survival machine.

Varied combinations of colors, sounds, engender feelings of peace, of danger, of tranquility, of happiness, of stress... Some are pleasurable and it's one hell of a phenomenon we are all exploring every day.

But don't forget we are just the result of thousands of years of chaotic and random additions, mutations. So searching for a "simple" explanation could seem a quest doomed to fail.

 

[TheRatKing]

I don't, because we have no practical use for music, from a survival standpoint.

As Arronax said, there are a lot of evolutionary "leftovers" or side effects that species acquire from mutations. We may like to hear certain intervals and rhythms because, as I said, we evolved to sympathize with them during speech/social development.

 

[Deleted member 53669]

Not all music has clearly defined rhythm and melody, genres such as "ambient industrial" are on the slippery side, because often they are just a bunch of real life noises, that you just might hear accidentily while working, say, in a factory. Still , some people love this kind of "music"....

Also, wouldn't we all like music if this was purely a physical, neurological aspect of human evolution. I mean i can't stand certain types of music that are often considered much more musical than some of the stuff that i listen to. Then there are people who don't like music at all.

Did you even read my other posts fuckhead, or even finish the same post?

This thread is a lie, it isn't about "Why we like music?" It's about, "Why my opinion is better than yours! Trolololololololololololol Suck my e-dick! trolololololololololol Conjecture is fun isn't it! Here's some, you're all fucking ass pumping cumshit stew sucking fags!

It all breaks down when you add your ego into it doesn't it?

I disagree with "back and forth" (ohmy) concerning the fact that the love of music is hard wired.
It seems like music just happens to sound like things we're familiar with, be it speech or other things in nature. We have evolved to have a particular reaction to particular intervals (due to them being prevalent in nature) and rhythms and now that we have the capacity to reproduce them, we can enjoy those intervals and rhythms we've evolved to have a taste for.

I would think that "having a taste" for certain music is both genetic and cultural, i.e. we "learn" to like certain sounds just as we learn to like certain sights (faces, places).

Why does listening to a male bird's mating song make a female all hot and bothered? I'd venture that it's the same sort of evolutionary mechanism.

I didn't say that the love of Black Sabbath is hard wired,

I said that the mechanisms that cause a love of Black Sabbath to be acquired are hard-wired.

 

[AskWazzup]

Did you even read my other posts fuckhead, or even finish the same post?

This thread is a lie, it isn't about "Why we like music?" It's about, "Why my opinion is better than yours! Trolololololololololololol Suck my e-dick! trolololololololololol Conjecture is fun isn't it! Here's some, you're all fucking ass pumping cumshit stew sucking fags!

It all breaks down when you add your ego into it doesn't it?

How cute. I'm not sure if the ego reference is about me, but if it is, it's kind of funny, because i stated that i don't have a clearly defined opinion on this subject, i'm just trying to have an interesting discusion.

Come to think of it, your post posses (indirectly) a very interesting questions - am i an elitist to think that some music is crap and not worth listening to? I guess this would be an easier question to answer if we all could come to a consensus of why we like music, but i guess we have to work from here.

So, do you think i should kick somebody in the face, when they say that my music sucks, or is there a real possibility that some music sucks from a theoreticly defined standpoint. Hm... this is getting confusing....

But don't forget we are just the result of thousands of years of chaotic and random additions, mutations. So searching for a "simple" explanation could seem a quest doomed to fail.

This seems like a good hypothesis, but then again, a few thousand years is not enough for radical evolutionary "mutations" to evolve, such as attraction to music.

I will try to do some more reading on this, i think there should at least be some scientific groundwork done on this subject.

 

[Deleted member 53669]

Location: Lithuania


I'll forgive you because of that fact.

Try re-reading my posts and paying the fuck attention, if you don't understand what the hell I'm talking about.

Let me break it down like a fraction for ya.

What is an interval?

If you know what an interval is, being the differences between two tones in music, or rhythm, a pattern of noises that adds emphasis to certain sections of music within that bar, you can understand the bedrock of why music is hard-wired as a human trait. The development of speech and abstract thought is a requirement for this understanding.

All other opinions derived from "Why I like this music over this music" is a learned trait, not a dominant genetic one.

So, basically, you have to learn how to be a douchebag and listen to shitty music.

And yes, you should kick people in the face who listen to shitty music. Why? Because the lack of that is why we have Justin Beiber.

And apparently you do have an ego, since my response started towards you, then had a new section of text, which was an open ended post towards the entire thread. That seemed to peek your interest and get you asking some reflective questions.

Playing coy doesn't work with me, I took time out to answer your question, when I could have been watching schoolgirl anal penetration videos in HD.

Huh? I wasn't trying to trick you. I was just trying to have a decent convo with a few beers in me. I don't know much about Black Sabbath. Crappy music if you ask me...

"Classical Armenian Killing Anthems"? What does that even mean? How do you relate a 1200 year old musical tradition which belongs to all the peoples of Minor-Asia (including the Armenians) and some parts of the Balkans to a historical event of a century ago which practically has nothing to do with the music itself?

Or are you just trolling?

My bad. TheWesDude has been PISSING ME THE FUCK OFF lately, and you became collateral in my forum rage.

So, do you have any recommendations in this type of music? I haven't had the pleasure.

If you haven't had the exposure to Sabbath "Which, if you are a classical guru, you haven't had the upbringing to appreciate it", then I would recommend trying to at least appreciate the magnificent guitar playing abilities of Randy Rhoads, and then moving backwards on the Ozzy Osbourne timeline towards the roots of the sound (Sabbath) that created all modern metal music, and rock, after the influence of Led Zeppelin.

 

[SkuLL]

New topic hijack:

Why do we argue?

Why do we spend the time to insult and/or argue with invisible people over the Internet? Are our genes involved, or have we simply grown to be such douchebags, powered by Internet's anonymity?

Where's the evolutionary advantage to being such a prick on a message board that people stop bothering to answer?

 

[AskWazzup]

Let me break it down like a fraction for ya.

What is an interval?

If you know what an interval is, being the differences between two tones in music, or rhythm, a pattern of noises that adds emphasis to certain sections of music within that bar, you can understand the bedrock of why music is hard-wired as a human trait. The development of speech and abstract thought is a requirement for this understanding.

Ok, so this is the basis for understanding music, but that is only understanding of it, knowing what is music and what isn't when you hear it. Maybe my brains are dead at this point, but that alone doesn't explain why we like music, why our pleasure centers in the brain light up when we hear it. You commented further on that what music we like is a learned trait, but how do i learn it? If say i hear a certain genre, style of music for the first time, and i get the goosebumps. How do i learn to like it without ever hearing similar music before?

And yes, you should kick people in the face who listen to shitty music. Why? Because the lack of that is why we have Justin Beiber.

Well, Beiber and the whole commercial side of music is a different thing. From my perspective it's shitty because it's not a creative process, but just a conveyor operation where "music" is just an added value, while life style is the main point of the sales.

What i'm more interested in, is when i'm thinking that certain genres are worse than others, does that make me a hypocrate?

And apparently you do have an ego, since my response started towards you, then had a new section of text, which was an open ended post towards the entire thread. That seemed to peek your interest and get you asking some reflective questions.

Well, i guess we all have an ego to a certain limit. Though i really have nothing against people having different opinions, or criticising me. What i wanted to say, is that i'm not trying to prove people wrong just for the sake of my ego and i have nothing against being proven wrong. That's a great thing actually, since people are giving me valuable information with which i can adjust myself accordingly and thus be a better person.

Playing coy doesn't work with me, I took time out to answer your question, when I could have been watching schoolgirl anal penetration videos in HD.

Now i looked up "playing coy" on the internet and have found a few meanings, but i'm not sure what you mean by that in this context.

Why do we spend the time to insult and/or argue with invisible people over the Internet?

I think that's a defense mechanism for people when they feel insecure. It's probably related to the "fight or flight" instinct. In other cases it's just people who enjoy that type of thing.

 

[Blackened]

By the way, my thread about this problem was actually "why do we like music and humor". I'm very curious why is humor funny - why do we laugh at jokes?

I'll start the same thread on a scientific forum and provide you the link if it gets good enough replies. Or maybe quote them, and then quote there the replies from here, that would be hilarious.

 

[Yoshi525]

By the way, my thread about this problem was actually "why do we like music and humor". I'm very curious why is humor funny - why do we laugh at jokes?

Maybe the world is just inherently funny on some transcendent, objective level. Or not. In which case, it probably once again falls down to an number of unknown mechanisms, probably all tied into the same old spiel about social/linguistic development etc...

 

[Blackened]

Define "funny".

 

[Yoshi525]

Define "funny".

How can one define the ineffable? How can one boil down the numinous and end up with mere words?

I could respond to your request with something obvious, Oxbridge and monotonous yet true. In light of the above, I won't.

One could say the crux of it is contrast. Life is all about balance, and the contrast between the two (in an oversimplified system) items on the balance scale. Balance, and what contrasts that which-is-in-balance. An obvious example of this is irony, yet it is equally applicable to all walks of lif....err humor.

Hope this helps.

What i'm more interested in, is when i'm thinking that certain genres are worse than others, does that make me a hypocrate?

Define 'worse'.

And 'hypocrate', whilst you're at it.

 

[Blackened]

How can one define the ineffable?

My point was that you can't say that "we laugh at funny things, because they are funny". That's like saying "a rock is a rock". That's what you said, basically.