Why Do We Feel for Music?
Why can music sometimes evoke emotions that words don’t always have the power to? Everybody experiences different emotions while listening to music. While some may feel sad while listening to a certain piece, another may feel happy. Why do we feel this way? Why is it that music has the power to do this? Although some music may not contain lyrics to tell a story, instrumental music can make the listener receive emotions equally as strong compared to music with lyrics.
Usually people tend to feel emotional to music that has lyrics and that tell a story. Individuals most likely become emotional when they can relate to the lyrics that the singer is singing. However this is not always the case. Many receive emotions for music without words as well. Receiving emotions from music are not always the same emotions that the song evokes. For some, a particular song can evoke happiness and can be uplifting, but the listener may experience sadness or nostalgic feelings. Listeners often tend to relate music to artwork or to past events that might have happened to them previously in their lives. This is usually for music that evoke sadness. On the other hand, music that is meant to be happy and give people uplifting emotions tend to not be very relatable in a deep way and make people think of happier times and allows them to have a more carefree nature. The emotions experienced while listening to different types of music is subjective and varies from person to person.
Not only music that contain lyrics can make a person emotional, instrumental music has the power to do that as well. There are many reasons on why music in general can make us feel a certain way. In instrumental music, there is more room for interpretation instead of being narrowed down to the words sung on the track. Since there is not any words to influence your interpretation on a song, each person’s idea or feeling that they get will differ. Having the lack of lyrics gives the listener the ability paint a picture in their head and let them decide on what they think the song is telling them. Specific sounds and other usage of chord progressions and melodies can make people feel a certain way. One example would be the appoggiatura. Jim Daly in his article “Why Does Some Music Make You Cry” argues that according to British psychiatrist John Sloboda “An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody to create a dissonant sound” (Jim Daly). Daly also argues that according to Sloboda, Martin Guhn, psychologist at the University of British Columbia states that “This generates tension in the listener.” (Jim Daly). Guhn also states “When the notes return to the anticipated melody, it feels good.” Many pieces of music that tend to move people emotionally contain appoggiaturas. A few examples would be Adele’s “Someone Like You” and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 (Jim Daly). Both pieces of music have notes in them that act as appoggiaturas and make listeners experience sad emotions due to the reasons stated earlier
Why do humans enjoy music in the first place? According to Ben Mauk, author of “Why Do We Love Music?”argues that “A 2001 experiment at McGill college used brain scans to study the neural mechanics of the goosebumps that great music can sometimes induce…the brain structures activated are the same regions linked to other euphoric stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs.” (Mauk). Many different parts of the brain are stimulated while we listen to music that we enjoy. According to Noreen Kassem, author of online article “What Parts of the Brain Are Stimulated By Music” the auditory cortex, cerebrum, cerebellum, and the Limbic System are all stimulated. The auditory cortex is responsible for analyzing information based on volume, pitch, melody and speed of a particular song. The cerebrum is responsible for bringing up images that correlate to the sounds being heard in the music and to recall memories to remember music lyrics and sounds (Kassem). The cerebellum’s job is to coordinate skeletal and muscle movement. It helps to create smooth and flowing movements while listening to music and it also works in harmony with other parts of the brain to create smooth rhythmic motions in response to music (Kassem). If you are an instrumental performer, it makes sense to why your body moves differently according to type of music the performer is playing. Lastly, the limbic system reacts emotionally according to the style of music you are listening to. This area is also the same part of the brain that is stimulated with food, sex or drugs (Kassem). However not everyone will get the same brain stimulus as others because some may interpret a song’s feeling differently than someone else.
The way the listener perceives and interprets music vary from person to person. The way the listener perceives or interprets music is important because some may have disabilities or talents that can either strengthen their emotional appeal to music or weaken it. Congenital amusia, perfect pitch, synesthesia, and musical anhedonia are all factors that influence the way we interpret music and why we react to it differently. Having congenital amusia, or being tone deaf can be a huge factor when it comes to interpreting music different. According to Josh Bloom, author of “Different People Hear Music Very Differently” argues that “people who are tone deaf can tell if a note…is higher or lower than another note, but cannot hear the pitch.” (Bloom). These people also would not be able to tell whether a chord is a major chord or minor chord; those being very different from each other. Congenital amusia is not very common “About four percent of the world’s population suffers from this strange affliction.” (Bloom). Although people with Congenital amusia cannot hear different pitches in music, they still tend to enjoy music as much as people who do not have it. Having perfect pitch means that an individual can name any pitch they can hear without the need of a reference pitch. This is the complete opposite of having congenital amusia. Bloom argues that “1 in 10,000 people it.” (Bloom). Having perfect pitch can greatly affect the way an individual perceives music. Those who have this ability can often hear when a note or a few notes are played out of tune while those who do not have will not notice anything wrong. Having this ability can make the listener focus more on the harmonic quality of a piece rather than the emotional aspect of the piece.“Synesthesia is a rare occurrence when the stimulation of one sense activates a second, different sense.” (Bloom). Individuals with synesthesia usually see colors whenever they hear a piece of music. This affects the way the listener perceives music emotionally because the color that these individuals see can influence their perception of the music that is being played. Synesthesia can also be very helpful for musicians. Individuals that possess synesthesia can use it to help them memorize music. Take Helene Grimaud for example “… French pianist Helene Grimaud, uses this sixth sense to help her memorize music scores.”(Bloom). One last factor that can influence the way we perceive music is having musical anhedonia. Musical anhedonia is a condition where an individual cannot enjoy music at all. It is estimated that about 2 percent of people suffer from this affliction. However it is hard to quantify because many of those people would actually be tone deaf as well (Bloom). People who suffer from this cannot enjoy music at all and most likely cannot be affected by any type of music they listen to.
Although instrumental music can be very emotionally impactful, music with lyrics is just as strong. People tend to enjoy music that has vocals and lyrics for many different reasons. Some of the reasons may include the song’s use of of rhyme patterns and repetition. If someone likes a song, there is usually a specific reason why they like it. A song’s use of rhyme patterns and repetition can play a big part in this. Listeners tend to remember songs that have a rhyme scheme easier than one that doesn’t because it can be very predictable. For example, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” The first line of the song already hints to us what words may come next based off the lyrics that say “Mary had a little lamb who’s fleece was white as snow.” At this point, your brain has already narrowed down the next phrase to end with a word that rhymes with “snow” (Sinicki). Since your mind is already thinking about ways to finish the song, it means that the song is easier to remember yet making it more enjoyable because the song will most likely do what you predict will happen. Another reason why music with lyrics are impactful is because of the use of repetition. Because of lyrics can be so repetitive, it means that it can be easily remember and therefore enjoyed. When your brain is exposed to something repetitive, your mind is constantly thinking of one idea only and therefore it makes the song very easy to remember. This is also a reason why a song is “catchy.” Think about Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance for example. The use of patterns, rhyme and repetition can be easily argued is what made the song famous. The lyrics “ Ra-ra ah-ah-ah, roma- roma-ma, ga-ga ooh-la-la, want your bad romance” is repeated multiple times throughout the song and its use of rhyming make it unforgettable to the listener. Vocals play a major part when it comes to enjoying and remembering music.