Why do we like music?

It has almost been seven years since I first heard the song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. I still haven’t made any sense of the lyrics yet. I don’t know what Freddie Mercury and the other members of Queen were going through while writing this song. But I understand it. Every note and every syllable of that song hits me differently. Every time my friends and I listen to it and get to the bridge of the song, we can’t help but bang our heads and scream at the top of our lungs – ‘Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me, Galileo Galileo…’. It is my favourite song to date and probably will be for the rest of my life.

Whenever we listen to a song, a musical piece or even an advertisement, we can have a good or bad opinion about the music in it. I have understood music as a pattern of sounds put together by an ‘expressive person’. It can either sound pleasing or annoying. It can also be really good if it is made by someone talented.

Now coming to the interesting question. Why do we like music? I have always found it entertaining to discuss with people — why do you like this song? Or I will often ask people why are humming this song. These discussions were even more interesting with the people in my college jamming groups. They understood musical language a little bit and it got really nerdy and technical like this blog is going to be. According to this experience of talking about music with so many people, I have concluded that broadly, there are two reasons for liking music. One is the nostalgic effect of music and the other is the complexity of good music. It can also be both.

The first way of liking music

To understand the first one, let’s talk about a few basic observations that can be made about the music we listen to. We know when we listen to a sad song, we feel sad. When we listen to an upbeat song, we get energised. When we listen to any music, it stimulates a particular feeling. Generally, the feeling is similar to the feeling of the artist, at the time the music was created by him/her. One can also gauge the artists on the ability to express emotions that they feel in the form of their songs. Understanding the lyrics of the song makes this process a lot smoother. But still one can find enough instrumental pieces or songs in languages that he/she doesn’t know that can bring tears to your eyes or a smile to your face.

But why? How is it that when no language is used and no actions or expressions of the person creating the music are seen, we understand the feeling and emotion? The answer must lie where we process almost everything — The brain.

So let’s understand a few things about the brain. The brain has three major systems. The reptilian brain is responsible for all motor and sensory responses, pain, reflexes and instincts. As the name suggests even a lizard has it. The Limbic system is responsible for emotions and rewards. It uses both emotions and rewards to bind the sensations received by the reptilian brain into memories. It is also responsible for place and position. This is why almost every time we remember something, it starts with ‘I was in the car…’, ‘I was in my bedroom…’. The neocortex is responsible for consciousness and the computation of data. We can recognise patterns and process language. We use this ability to explain our thoughts and emotions in a very easy and effective manner and translate the knowledge and experience amongst and across generations.

This model of the human brain was given by American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean in the 1960s. It’s old but it works. When we listen to music, a lot happens in our heads. This is the approximate chronological order of events.

1. Music is played and reaches the ear

2. The ear picks up the sound signals and sends them to the reptilian brain and the decoding begins

3. The reptilian brain sends the signals to the auditory cortex, part of the neocortex

4. The Neocortex analyses the pattern and converts it into emotion

5. The limbic system picks up the emotion read and associates it with a memory of a similar emotion

6. The emotion then gets converted to a feeling and shows in the form of action i.e. crying, smiling, feeling energised etc

7. Catharsis happens and we feel better than before.

Most people go through the above process and end up liking a musical piece. It’s like an involuntary action. This is mostly for people who don’t go looking for good music. They just happen to stumble upon it and it’s like magic.

Everyone starts here but some develop something called ear training, also referred to as music sense in various casual conversations around this topic. As the name suggests, when a person listens to music and pays attention to detail, the patterns become recognisable. They start understanding the sounds and start distinguishing sharp sounds, low sounds, different instruments, combinations of sounds, rhythm, tone, melody etc. If the person just listens to music and does not pay attention to detail, he/she will remain in the same state. Their choice of music will solely depend on subconsciously retained memory of music.

I used to wonder why Bhojpuri music exists. How can someone like this? It’s almost noise to me. The singer is always terrible and auto-tuned to the point that you can’t even understand what he/she is singing. The music is also terrible and over-mastered. So I hate it. But there are so many who like it. They like it because they grew up listening to it. When they listen to that music, it brings up memories of better easier times. This is an example of the first way of liking music.

The second way of liking music

Consider this example, two people have to go from their homes to a bus stop nearby. One guy runs there via the normal route while the other guy uses his well-built body to jump over fences and buildings to do the same thing. Now, the people watching these two guys can have two opinions. If they think the second guy is a fool and is making an effort for no reason, then it is similar to the first way of liking music. If they think that the second guy is cool then belong to the second way of liking music. In the second way of liking music, the person listening to the music recognises the complexity of the piece that the artist has created by putting in a good amount of effort and appreciating it.

A perfect example of the second way of liking music would be those classical performances where the people tend to be playing the same thing again and again, with every minute difference every time. It’s very difficult to play that piece or sing but they are so trained that they can play it flawlessly so many times and improvise also. The effort put into training can also be gauged by how effortless it appears to be during a performance, all the while being inherently complex. One can also like a piece in this way even if it’s the first time hearing it.

I lean more towards the second way of liking music. I look at the complexity of the piece and I like this process, but it also has to sound good to the ear and it has to have an emotional background as a basic foundation. So I guess it has to pass a certain threshold in both aspects. Only then I will listen to it on a loop a thousand times to be able to deconstruct every part of it. Once I have deconstructed all of the songs, and I won’t get surprised by it anymore, I change the looped songs. They are songs like Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd, First Regret by Steven Wilson and many more. These songs mostly belong to the progressive rock genre. The artist very beautifully keeps adding instruments and sounds and harmonies making it more and more amazing with every bar of the song.

Then some songs just blow your mind body soul everything, like the BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. I can’t stress it enough. 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' by the Beatles. 'Paradise' by Coldplay. 'November Rain' by Guns and Roses. 'Drive Home' by Steven Wilson. 'The final thing on my mind' by Pineapple Thief. These are songs that, according to me, are at the top for both reasons for liking any music. So much emotion and such intricate work to create them. The melodies and harmonies and progressions and whatnot. These artists are legends to me.

Technically, then everyone should like these songs. But that is not the case. These songs might take an open mind and a couple of listens for some people who don’t have an ear for them. The only reason someone might not like these songs is because of an existing notion like metal is too much noise or the singer has an unpleasant voice. These might be logical arguments as the singer of Guns and Roses has a sharp voice with a bit of distortion built into it. The song November Rain would be incomplete without it. The voice matches the required emotion and he has put tremendous effort into getting that much control over it.

In the end, music is an art form and “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”, so there will always be room for some ambiguity. Nevertheless, I’ll keep up with my effort in creating the perfect understanding of all aspects of this question ‘Why do we like music.’