Why is it so easy to find the downbeat in songs?
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We don’t really know. The ability to synchronize one’s own movements or perception with a beat is called “entrainment” in neuroscience and seems to be a universal human biological or neurological trait. Some animals can do it as well. There are some theories that it has an evolutionary function, but none have really been proven.
I think it has less to do with the fact that we are so perceptive that we can pick out the down beat and more to do with the fact that most western music that is popular and easy to listen to is purposefully written to have strong, easy to hear down beats. The song just sounds nice written that way.
Why exactly songs that have that strong, steady pulse sound pleasant in ways that songs that lack it don’t, hard to say.
Exceptions abound, obviously. There are countless pieces of music that ignore down beats, or do not even have down beats to find in the first place, and are still pleasant to listen to. But not every piece that has a down beat to find makes it easy to find.
Because they’re written like that. Plenty of music is written without a strong downbeat, but most popular music is written to be easy to listen to.
Music is sound over time. Dividing the time into even intervals makes it easy for people to feel a pulse.
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