Read "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin.
Some interesting points/arguments that I remember from reading it several years ago:
- In many languages, the word "sing" is the same as the word "dance".
- It's relatively recently in our history that the majority of people have become only listeners of music, instead of creators.
- As humans evolved, one's ability to sing, dance, and play instruments well displayed good physical, intellectual, and emotional health to the opposite sex, and so gave you an evolutionary edge.
- Something about how even the most non-musically-inclined people can extract the beat from a song better than a computer and repeat it later perfectly (memory is hazy on this one...I'm probably saying something stupid here).
That's all I remember for now...references are in the book of course. Very good read.
Comments
Read "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Daniel Levitin.
Some interesting points/arguments that I remember from reading it several years ago:
- In many languages, the word "sing" is the same as the word "dance".
- It's relatively recently in our history that the majority of people have become only listeners of music, instead of creators.
- As humans evolved, one's ability to sing, dance, and play instruments well displayed good physical, intellectual, and emotional health to the opposite sex, and so gave you an evolutionary edge.
- Something about how even the most non-musically-inclined people can extract the beat from a song better than a computer and repeat it later perfectly (memory is hazy on this one...I'm probably saying something stupid here).
That's all I remember for now...references are in the book of course. Very good read.