Why does music appeal to people

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Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature neuroscience , 14 2 , Some may say that it would be the lyrical content that triggers the emotional response stemming from a song, but this is only partly true.

While insightful or exciting lyrics can provide something to relate to or raise adrenaline levels, there exists music, such as classical Beethoven or Mozart , that can trigger the same emotional response without muttering a single word. There is something about the arrangement of various sounds and tones that complement each other that makes music so soothing, exciting, and emotionally stimulating. Shermer explains that our brains are always trying to find patterns and piece together jumbled information that we are processing that may or may not be related.

This brain function is the reason humans can be deceived by optical illusions, why we see animals in cloud formations, and why we recognize faces. Why is this something we are able to do? This skill may seem somewhat useless today, especially since many times it fools us rather than helps us, but this skill proved very useful to our ancestors.

Take the picture as seen below in the patternicity article for a loose example. Many predators in the prehistoric world utilized methods of camouflage and prowess to secure a kill on their prey.

If a prehistoric human noticed two eyes and a shape that resembled a mouth in a bush and cognitively formed the pattern of a face with the information they were processing, they would have a better chance of recognizing danger and escaping rather than a prehistoric human that did not have this cognitive ability. Therefore this trait was naturally selected for, but what does it have to do with the appeal of music?

It may be possible then for music anhedonics to still appreciate and enjoy music, even if their reward brain circuitry differs a little from those of us who can experience intense physical responses to music. And of course, music anhedonics might still find music a useful way to express or regulate their own emotions, and to connect to others. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.

Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Nikki Rickard , Monash University. This is an intriguing phenomenon, and we presume very rare. Music is a pattern. As we listen, we're constantly anticipating what melodies, harmonies, and rhythms may come next.

That's why we typically don't like styles of music we're not familiar with. When we're unfamiliar with a style of music, we don't have a basis to predict its patterns. Zatorre cites jazz as one music style that many unacquainted have trouble latching onto. When we can't predict musical patterns, we get bored. We learn through our cultures what sounds constitute music.

The rest is random noise. These explanations may describe why we feel joy from music, but don't explain the whole other range of emotions music can produce. When we hear a piece of music, its rhythm latches onto us in a process called entrainment. If the music is fast-paced, our heartbeats and breathing patterns will accelerate to match the beat. That arousal may then be interpreted by our brains as excitement. Research has found that the more pleasant-sounding the music, the greater the level of entrainment.

Another hypothesis is that music latches onto the regions of the brain attuned to speech — which convey all of our emotions. It's essential to understand if those around us are happy, sad, angry, or scared. Much of that information is contained in the tone of a person's speech.