I think it’s safe to say that all humans who can hear, enjoys music. Not everybody likes the same genre, but what is it about music in general that makes humans so drawn to it?
In: 86
I recently listened to a [podcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVxL_p_kToc) that covered this exact topic. There is much more known about this than the other posters are aware of.
TLDR but the whole podcast is highly recommended:
All species that can learn vocalizations, such as birds and humans, will dance and respond positively to music. Songbirds learn songs by making vocalizations that it determines to be pleasing. In this case “pleasing” means when the processing of the musical sound triggers a release of dopamine in a way that other sounds don’t. When a songbird learns a song it likes, it will sing it to attract a mate whose brain will also release dopamine in response to hearing it.
The answer to why humans like music has been researched and is understood. Just as it does with birds, music triggers a release of dopamine and dopamine makes you feel good. This phenomenon can be used for social benefit as a tool to cause the release of dopamine in other humans.
There is a compelling theory on the harder question of why human (and bird) brains can understand music in ways other animal brains cannot. The same networks in your brain that can learn speech, or generically, networks in any brain that has ability to learn vocalizations, are speculated to be necessarily receptive to music. This is because the brain must learn melody, rhythm and creative expression to control the muscles that move vocal cords in ways that intentionally shape sound to produce creative speech and song.
Latest Answers