I understand that it’s a chemical response, but why does our body hear an assembly of notes and go “ooOh that’s my jam! Here’s some of the good stuff” like how do certian tones benift us?
In: Biology
Studies have shown it has to do with our brain’s pattern of expectation and reward. When we expect something, and that something happens, we release dopamine in response. When we listen to music, especially repetitive music that we can sing along to or follow the beat, we’re rewarded chemically and, by extension, emotionally.
https://www.mcgill.ca/neuro/channels/news/dopamine-and-reward-responses-music-causally-linked-293767
Our brains are evolutionary programmed to find a style we like from an early age; mostly based on what we’re used to hearing around us. This is because in the 10’s of thousands, or maybe 100’s of thousands of yrs our species spent being tribal, it was a social bonding mechanism.
I think we evolved to like music because hearing it back in the day meant safety and security alongside your tribe and/or social bonding. The same reason why you sleep better when it’s raining, because the sound of the rain means that there will be no predators out, so you can get better sleep, thus evolving this way.
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