2. music
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music , mind , thought and emotion

There is not a society on this planet, nor probably ever has been, which is without some form of musical expression, often closely linked with rythm and dance. My question is less concentrated on the latter two however.
What I am pondering boils down to:
What is music and what does it do to us
Why do we differentiate music from random noise so clearly and yet can pick up certain samples within that noise as musical.
By listening to music, we find some perhaps interesting, some which we would call musical. What differentiates "musical music" from "ordinary music" and this again from "noise"?
In a more general sense again:
If music has impact on us, what is the nature of our receptors for it. Or better: Who, what are we, that music can do to us what it does?
What would be the nature of a system, which practically all of us would agree upon, that it imparts musicality best?
And finally, if such a sytem would exist, can this quality be measured?
detlof

Showing 1 response by matt8268

matt8268
92 posts
 
To me the music/emotion link is a great question that has no answer (yet). I do know that music can follow heartrate, so that if you're feeling amped you want to listen to music with a faster beat. But I still have not figured out how music can tap my emotions in a way I describe as triggering nostalgia for memories I never had.

It is definitely instinctive and not learned to a great degree. This leads me to believe evolution (God if you're a Christian reader) was involved. Possibly music is and always has been a way to influence many people at once, building community and common thought. And those who naturally didn't experience that way were weeded out (or put more bluntly, didn't reproduce).
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