The Role of Music in Our Lives

Humans devote ample time to producing and listening to music. What music offers to humans is universally valued. This universality raises the question of the origin of human musicality. What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? Current theories focus on emotion regulation, social cohesion, such as group bonding, or the bond between parents and children, and communication. Here are six main reasons why we appreciate music (Spitzer, 2021).

1. Charming the opposite sex

How and why music originated in our species is unknown (Honing, 2018). Music mystified Charles Darwin. For Darwin, music seemed to offer no advantage to our survival. Darwin speculated that music evolved as a means of impressing potential partners, thereby contributing to reproductive success. For example, an intriguing study found that during peak fertility, females preferred men who can create more complex music as short-term partners (Charlton, 2014). Male songbirds sing in spring to attract mates. However, we now know there is much more to music’s evolutionary origin than that.

2. Music instinct

We are all born with an instinct for music. Human beings are evidently endowed innately with a capacity to understand music, a desire to listen to it, and perhaps even an inborn ability to create it (Montagu, 2017). Newborn babies acquire music before language. During the first few months, infants and their mothers communicate in a highly expressive (musical form). Singing is part of every culture. Dancing is uniquely human. Very few species can dance to music. However, some individuals are tone-deaf, and some are largely indifferent to music, hence presumably not moved to dance.

3. Music as a language of emotion

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” As the saying goes, "Where words end, music begins." People who have difficulty expressing their feelings in words sometimes feel more comfortable expressing these emotions through music. Emotions expressed in music often mimic the way that emotions are expressed in speech. For example, a slow tempo naturally conveys sadness and tenderness, and faster beats are associated with high-arousal emotions such as happiness and anger.

4. Music as a source of pleasure

Music is a universal source of enjoyment for humans, and hearing a favorite tune can instantly lift one’s mood. The positive responses induced by music are comparable to those generated by food and sex, but unlike those stimuli, music has no known biological significance. The neurotransmitter dopamine, known as a “happy hormone,” is an important mediator of enjoyable responses. This evidence suggests that music could function as a therapeutic agent. Music can regulate mood (cheer us up or calm us down).

5. Music strengthens social interactions

Music improves group cohesion. For instance, singing in choruses, sharing rhythms and melodies, can bring people together as a community. Music-related activities (dance and singing) encourage the formation of bigger social networks and provide a safe way for individuals to interact and share experiences without revealing their personal information (Greenberg, 2021). We are happier when we participate in the music-making or when we dance.

6. Aesthetics of music

Aesthetic pleasures are typically pursued and enjoyed for their own sake. The focus is on the pleasure that arises from the act of doing something rather than achieving some ultimate personal goal. We appreciate beautiful things not for their practical purposes (utility) only, but also for what they are in themselves. Certain musical works are valued aesthetically for themselves (Clemente et al., 2021). We value music because it gives us enjoyment and emotional uplift not to survive.

In sum, the ability to play and participate in music is a joyful experience. This implies that children should have access to basic music education. They are as important as any other academic subject. Music helps us remember things better. Songs stick in the mind better than basic narrative (songs are used to teach children the alphabet). Those who visit the very elderly in nursing homes and memory care frequently observe that people who no longer recognize others and have lost the capacity for conversation can nonetheless respond to music and even sing along with songs they knew many years before.

References

Charlton, B.D. (2014) Menstrual cycle phase alters women’s sexual preferences for composers of more complex music

Clemente, A., Pearce, M. T., & Nadal, M. (2021, March 18). Musical Aesthetic Sensitivity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Advance online publication.

Greenberg, D. M., Decety, J., & Gordon, I. (2021). The social neuroscience of music: Understanding the social brain through human song. American Psychologist. Advance online publication.

Honing, H. (Ed.) (2018). The Origins of Musicality. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Montagu J. (2017), How Music and Instruments Began: A Brief Overview of the Origin and Entire Development of Music, from Its Earliest Stages. Frontiers in Sociology, 2017; 2(8).

Spitzer Michael (2021). The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth. Bloomsbury.