Welcome to the 237th insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode, we uncover the 2.5 million-year-old mystery of music, questioning why the human mind is so intertwined with rhythm, patterns and sound.
From the moment hominins stood and set one foot before another, the rhythm of walking stamped music forever. Creating a link between the pattern of footsteps and the spacing between them, our movement’s cadence gave way to the brain’s association with muscular exertion and sound. While its scientific origin is widely puzzling, the repetitious pattern led to some of the human mind’s first interactions with self-produced music, eventually becoming a universally enjoyed medium across all cultures and beings.
Having been adopted into primitive social gatherings and tribal customs, music would become inseparable from the human mind, embedding itself into all avenues of life. Granting social cohesion, selective properties in mating, communication, and emotional expression, the art of sound was undoubtedly integral to our internal and external structures yet lacked any distinctive survival functions. Unlike opposable thumbs or bipedalism, music was not required for mating, eating, sleeping or drinking, leaving today’s scientists with little to no understanding of the brain’s love for song.
Tying in such factors with the vast period in which music was developed, it is challenging to pinpoint why humans love music, but there certainly are theories. Firstly, many believe that song tricks the brain to mimic our response to speech. Finding patterns in melodies and cadence, the mind wants to decode the emotion behind peer-to-peer communication. For example, the happiest one can make their voice, a piano or violin would make it 100 times more pleasing due to its broad sonic range.
Likewise, a similar theory lies on the principle of pattern recognition, stating that our primitive instincts in identifying danger and success are overlayed to that of melodies and chorus. Anticipating tune patterns may generate the same reward release as the sound of a waterfall, making unpredictable genres like jazz less desirable for many.
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