We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
1–10 of 180 posts
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#2Related: recent studies have shown that there are people with "musical anhedonia", and that this condition may affect 3 to 5% of the world population [1]. These people "get" music, meaning that they can learn to sing or play an instrument, remember and recognize melodies etc., but they are completely unable to receive any pleasure from it. As someone who gets a significant amount of his daily joy from listening to music and who always believed in music to be a universal language, I find this astonishing.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#3I had similar question few days ago and posted this on HN https://www.quora.com/Why-does-music-make-you-want-to-move-d...
"It has been noted that rhythm is a built-in part of every human being so the urge to move is very natural and it comes from deep inside. There has been a lot of suggestions that this would develop during child’s growth in the uterus, since hearing is the sense that develops close to its final stage before birth. This way the child absorbs the sounds of environment along with mother’s steady heartbeat that could be seen as a steady pulse in music."
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#4I had similar question few days ago and posted this on HN https://www.quora.com/Why-does-music-make-you-want-to-move-d... "It has been noted that rhythm is a built-in part of every human being so the urge to move is very natural and it comes from deep inside. There has been a lot of suggestions that this would develop during child’s growth in the uterus, since hearing is the sense that develops close to its final sta…
It may be junk science but I remember reading something long ago that said the bpm of a song that is closest to a human heart beat is more pleasing than one much faster or slower. I'm now off to see if I can find the reference...
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#5I had similar question few days ago and posted this on HN https://www.quora.com/Why-does-music-make-you-want-to-move-d... "It has been noted that rhythm is a built-in part of every human being so the urge to move is very natural and it comes from deep inside. There has been a lot of suggestions that this would develop during child’s growth in the uterus, since hearing is the sense that develops close to its final sta…
It may be junk science but I remember reading something long ago that said the bpm of a song that is closest to a human heart beat is more pleasing than one much faster or slower. I'm now off to see if I can find the reference...
Hmm, electronic genres are definitely clustered around 128, 140, and 170 (+/-2), and those are all reasonable heart rates when you're partying...But a "human heart beat" can be literally anything so I'm not convinced.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#6Related: recent studies have shown that there are people with "musical anhedonia", and that this condition may affect 3 to 5% of the world population [1]. These people "get" music, meaning that they can learn to sing or play an instrument, remember and recognize melodies etc., but they are completely unable to receive any pleasure from it. As someone who gets a significant amount of his daily joy from listening to mu…
Whoa! I had no idea this was a thing! I'd always thought it was just some weird thing about me. I don't really get a whole lot of pleasure out of music, or get moved by music much. I almost never listen to music. When I do listen, it's usually to drown out external noise or help me focus, but in that case I usually just listen to the same song on a loop.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be junk science but I remember reading something long ago that said the bpm of a song that is closest to a human heart beat is more pleasing than one much faster or slower. I'm now off to see if I can find the reference...
Hmm, electronic genres are definitely clustered around 128, 140, and 170 (+/-2), and those are all reasonable heart rates when you're partying...But a "human heart beat" can be literally anything so I'm not convinced.
Perhaps they mean the average non-stressed, slightly relaxed rate of around 100 or so? I'm not convinced either, but it is interesting to think about. Tempo and rhythm/beat has such a profound effect on the emotional response to music.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#8Related: recent studies have shown that there are people with "musical anhedonia", and that this condition may affect 3 to 5% of the world population [1]. These people "get" music, meaning that they can learn to sing or play an instrument, remember and recognize melodies etc., but they are completely unable to receive any pleasure from it. As someone who gets a significant amount of his daily joy from listening to mu…
Whoa! I had no idea this was a thing! I'd always thought it was just some weird thing about me. I don't really get a whole lot of pleasure out of music, or get moved by music much. I almost never listen to music. When I do listen, it's usually to drown out external noise or help me focus, but in that case I usually just listen to the same song on a loop.
I'm really curious about this. Have you ever fiddled around, learnt or messed about with any musical instrument, and if so, how did you feel?
I recall that when I was learning my first instrument, and started learning a lot of songs, a lot of the other instruments didn't really make sense. For instance, if I was learning a guitar part from a rock song, the bass/drums/keys sort of sounded like a background mix that I couldn't identify into their individual instruments/parts.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#9My father loves music. Famously miserly, he wouldn't mind a monthly paycheck on an audio system.
I on the other hand have never enjoyed music. I think it's a rebellion thing. But also that sad music made me despondent but happy music didn't affect me to the same extent.
The way my father managed to reel me in was to ask me to predict where the musician would take the song. In things like Jazz or improvised music, this is pretty hard. But even in well known classical pieces, this kind of prediction and correction is a pretty interesting exercise.
My takeaway from this kind of exercise is that I enjoy music as a pattern matching exercise. It's like a good joke - when you run into an unexpected punchline.
Re: We know music is pleasurable, the question is why?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa! I had no idea this was a thing! I'd always thought it was just some weird thing about me. I don't really get a whole lot of pleasure out of music, or get moved by music much. I almost never listen to music. When I do listen, it's usually to drown out external noise or help me focus, but in that case I usually just listen to the same song on a loop.
I'm really curious about this. Have you ever fiddled around, learnt or messed about with any musical instrument, and if so, how did you feel? I recall that when I was learning my first instrument, and started learning a lot of songs, a lot of the other instruments didn't really make sense. For instance, if I was learning a guitar part from a rock song, the bass/drums/keys sort of sounded like a background mix that I…
I played the viola and sang in chorus in middle school. I really enjoyed both--especially the viola--but I think my enjoyment was more of the mechanics of it rather than the actual music we were making. I also really enjoyed playing Guitar Hero in college in the same way.
I've thought about taking up the guitar or piano since then, but haven't ever gotten around to it.