6 ms·
Why Does Music Feel So Good?
- hobs 13y agoI like how an undergraduate neuroscientist takes the same approach I would to learning about the brain. Throw that fucker in Google.
- willismichael 13y agoNo! Please don't waste yet another super genius on an advertising company.
- xnxn 13y agoThe fucker being referred to here is the research topic, not the neuroscientist: > After Salimpoor had the car epiphany, she rushed home to her computer and Googled “music and the brain.”
- JonnieCache 13y agoMy largely uninformed guess: Music is so massively rewarding because it trains/fuzzes our pattern matching engines, in a particularly effective and advantageous way that cannot be found "in nature". This is the same reason why jokes/humour are so enormously valued by the brain. It also explains why only nerds like listening to breakcore.
- sageikosa 13y agoI got to watch Udo Dirkschneider (from U.D.O. and Accept) live on his North American tour last week in Poughkeepsie, NY. One thing I realized about him (apart from the obvious fact his voice is perfect for heavy metal even at age 61), is that he really enjoys listening to the other musicians (the rest of the band!) he has on stage with him, and he has hand motions that show he is following and anticipating the music in his head.
- brador 13y agoOr it might be because the beats and repetition help synchronize brain sectors. Allowing refined, less fuzzy, thinking.
- GuiA 13y agoSorry for my potential utter ignorance, but this sounds a lot like woowoo. Do you have any source that refers to such a thing as "synchronization of brain sectors" that leads to "refined, less fuzzy thinking"?
- quesebifurcan 13y agoI think Steven Pinker would agree: "...music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties" (How the Mind Works, p.534).
- Recoil42 13y agoThis is a cute description of what it does, but it doesn't really explain the why or how.
- louischatriot 13y agoPeople like to guess a pattern (i.e. "from the first 5 secs I think the song will go like this and I'll like it") and like when they're right. That's also why we tend to like more songs we've already heard several times (even though we didn't like them a lot in the beginning). Summary of the article: http://tldr.io/tldrs/516bfd54649fcf9e0a000de0/why-does-music-feel-so-good-phenomena http://tldr.io/tldrs/516bfd54649fcf9e0a000de0/why-does-music...
- thomseddon 13y agoThe question that has always puzzled me is why do we feel compelled to sing along to music? I mean, we are invariably worse singers so it surely makes it sound worse and this is besides the fact that signing ourselves drowns out much of the original sound anyway! (Note: this is not to say I'm a silent listener, i'm a big fan of singing to myself ! :)
- JonnieCache 13y agoIn terms of my little framework, you're exercising the pattern engine by making predictions and immediately having them validated. Notice how some people will try to sing along to a song even when they've never heard it before, and how the best pop songs make this very easy to do.
- drivers99 13y agoThis fits in with an observation (internally, of myself, so probably not scientifically valid) that when I dance to music, it starts to feel like I'm creating the music with my movements. Of course I'm just moving to what I know the music is going to do, but it feels good when you feel like you're doing the opposite.
- unlimit 13y agoAnother question that has puzzled me is why do we sometimes sing or hum a tune totally randomly? And why do we choose to sing or hum that tune?
- JonnieCache 13y agoMore fuzzing I guess.
- nollidge 13y agoIs this true for everyone, though? I've sung in choirs and played various instruments over the years, so my experience of music is almost always one of deconstructing it, and so my unconscious motivation to hum along (or tap my fingers or beatbox) is to facilitate picking apart the different voices and instruments. But not everyone has that musical background, so maybe not everyone is so compelled as you or me to sing along.
- breakupapp 13y agoplaying music also makes you feel a lot better
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- saddino 13y agoThere have been several pieces (from classical to classic rock) that have actually caused me to break out in tears. Not teary eyes mind you; gushing waterworks at specific resolution points. Amazingly, this is reproducible, but the severity of the effect depends on my mood. After reading this, my best guess is that this is tied to an especially intense release of dopamine. My maternal grandfather shared this peculiarity and both of us have had awkward moments where we try to explain that we are quite OK -- "it was just the music" (an explanation often met with puzzled expressions).
- anoncow 13y ago> Amazingly, this is reproducible I have sobbed to so many shitty movies, that I have lost count.
- bane 13y agoIt's called Frisson (I have it also) There used to be a great Wikipedia page on it, but the deletionists got to it at some point and turned it into this content free page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chill There's a slowly growing body of studies into it. There's also a reddit devoted to it http://www.reddit.com/r/frisson http://www.reddit.com/r/frisson but I've found that what causes one person to frisson doesn't necessarily cause another. This book has a bit on it http://books.google.com/books?id=uyI_Cb8olkMC&lpg=PR5&ots=ig7ydC48uK&dq=frisson%20music&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=uyI_Cb8olkMC&lpg=PR5...
- meritt 13y agoSomeone needs to put together a Spotify playlist of these 60 songs.
- anoncow 13y agoOr a grooveshark playlist.
- breakupapp 13y agoSoundcloud + rdio are much better than grooveshark now. I can barely use grooveshark. I think it's dying.
- kafkaesque 13y agoI put a Spotify playlist together but only found 56 songs. There were more than one version of a few songs, and I couldn't cross-reference the audio on the researcher's site. I'll do it tonight, unless anyone gets to it before I.
- meritt 13y agoLink to playlist? :)
- kafkaesque 13y agohttp://open.spotify.com/user/573v3n/playlist/4Fd7kTb26UIs7GYo0QDCIj http://open.spotify.com/user/573v3n/playlist/4Fd7kTb26UIs7GY...
- zwieback 13y agoThank you! Updating my Spotify list now. I was looking for tips from SXSW but am tired of whiny indie rock, this works much better. Just noticed #4 swapped artist and title.
- randomdata 13y agoWhile there may be no scientific basis, I do like the explanation I read on another site: Mating calls. While we can certainly form relationships without music, music does often seem to play a large role in our mating processes.
- rlu 13y agoSomewhat tangential, somewhat related: people listen to music a lot, and yet the great majority of people do so with their stock iPod earbuds - or cheap alternatives. I don't like to consider myself an Audiophile (and I really don't think I would classify as one anyways) but I don't understand why people are okay with paying hundreds of dollars (sometimes over $1,000) on HD TVs and yet stick with free headphones or cheap speakers. I personally think I listen to music more than I watch TV shows or movies - and I reckon this is true for many others as well. Why don't other people spend money on good sound equipment to have a better listening experience? For example, I have a pair of Sennheiser HD600s which MSRP at about $400 I think. My friends find this ridiculous. I also have a $100 amp and a $70 DAC. So I've spend almost $600 on this audio equipment. I bought these 2.5 years ago and don't plan on replacing them any time soon (definitely content with what I have). I don't really expect my friends to immediately plunge into what I have ($600) but they could try out a more 'beginner' pair like Sennheiser HD 555s which cost like $120. $120 is, I think, more than reasonable for the sound difference you'd get using those headphones. Those are what I had prior to my HD 600s for close to five years and then decided I wanted to try something even better. I suppose some of my friends HAVE spent ~$100 on Beats headphones, though this just makes me sad as they're complete crap compared to other headphones you could get for $100. I dunno. I'm not trying to sound like I'm ranting but I do find it interesting that so many people find it wasteful to spend money on audio equipment when they spend so much time listening to music.
- codemac 13y agoYou don't hear a difference when listening to music that is produced and edited with an assumption of crappy audio equipment. Many people have entire playlists of songs that they'll stream at 96kbps over shitty free headphones. 96kbps over 600$ of equipment wont change much.
- fredsted 13y agoPeople have different interests. I know someone who spends thousands of dollars on coffee and coffee equipment. I think that's ridiculous. I think it's a cool hobby though. It sucks that your friends make you feel bad for things you enjoy! The new Apple Earpods are acceptable though (compared to the Sennheiser 429 I own which are too big to wear in public).
- lukifer 13y agoI recently read a piece that I feel explains the phenomenon quite well [1]. In short: we evolved rhythmic music as a defense mechanism, to unify the tribe into acting a large meta-organism for the purpose of aggression displays against predators and other tribes. As with a lot of other social behavior, it feels good to be part of something larger than yourself, and music connects us emotionally, physically and rhythmically to one another. This may not tell the whole story, but I believe it's a strong component, particularly given the historical relationship between religion and music. [1]: http://www.meltingasphalt.com/music-in-human-evolution/ http://www.meltingasphalt.com/music-in-human-evolution/
- trustfundbaby 13y agoI thought this was a closely related article that got more into the actual science behind our predilection for music http://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/why-we-buy-music-225868 http://www.mcgill.ca/channels/news/why-we-buy-music-225868
- dougk16 13y agoRead "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin. Some interesting points/arguments that I remember from reading it several years ago: - In many languages, the word "sing" is the same as the word "dance". - It's relatively recently in our history that the majority of people have become only listeners of music, instead of creators. - As humans evolved, one's ability to sing, dance, and play instruments well displayed good physical, intellectual, and emotional health to the opposite sex, and so gave you an evolutionary edge. - Something about how even the most non-musically-inclined people can extract the beat from a song better than a computer and repeat it later perfectly (memory is hazy on this one...I'm probably saying something stupid here). That's all I remember for now...references are in the book of course. Very good read.
- shaydoc 13y agoInteresting reading. I have always loved music, pretty much anything. I just wonder if our genetics and DNA plays a large part in this. I often observe my little daughter's reaction to music, and its truly amazing to see how she will spontaneously smile and dance when a really good piece of music comes on. First time I really noticed big time was when the opening bars of Bruce Hornsby's "The way it is" came on the radio, she just loved it :-) I wonder if we all get beginners templates of what we will like via our gene pool :-)