Psychology Behind Music
Is music alive? What does that even mean? Let’s dive in.
Musicking: a term that captures the various ways that we actively engage with and use music to animate our behavior, cultivate and refine our experiences, orient ourselves to others and the world around us, and motivate behavior.
Blah, blah, blah. Now what does that mean?
It’s no secret that music is considered a universal language. Music is a language with no barriers, no rules, no grammar, and requires no learning. It is the language that comes to us naturally. It is a language we can create and understand no matter what part of the world we come from. This is one of the most powerful and riveting aspects of music and our experience with it.
Beyond just the pleasure we receive from music, music affords us much more than we may even realize. We use music in our everyday life to add and enhance situations. For instance, think of a social get together with just the sound of people's voices. Now, imagine that same social get together with some dynamic beat-heavy music. The music alone can elevate the spirits at a party. Without even realizing it, the music will have people moving and grooving. Whether it gets people to rhythmically tap their foot or to rock their head subtly to the beat, music moves us. Music affords movement.
There is a term called felt allure, which describes how we experience music as affectively irresistible. We are emotionally drawn to music as it typically has a powerful meaning to us. Beyond this emotional connection we feel to music, music also affords us advancing behavior, entrainment, and even helps us self regulate.
Music relating to advancing behavior and entrainment means that music brings about a state of sustained and responsive engagement in which the acoustic structure of the musical event draws the listener into a patterned response reflecting the dynamics of the acoustic structure. Okay, that was a mouthful. In english, that means that the actual sound and structure of music subconsciously allows us to physically move in alignment with the sounds we are hearing. Music and our bodies communicate. This is called entrainment. Entrainment occurs via the behavioral coordination resulting from an individual's responsiveness to rhythmic signals. How fascinating? This literally means music has an aspect of “aliveness” to it. The fact that it can elicit our bodies to move in patterned ways is magical.
Another compelling musical affordance is the fact that it acts as a real-time emotion regulator. Music solicits and modulates the general shape of attention and expressive behavior responsive for generating specific emotional experiences. Think of this example: exercise. Exercise, most of the time, is physically and mentally exhaustive. It requires focus and strength. But we use music to facilitate activities such as exercise or manual labor. Music is known to sharpen and sustain our attentional focus which is helpful when working through strenuous activity. Music has the ability to influence the physical sensations we feel, in that it coordinates our movements better. Music also can reduce how difficult the strenuous activity feels. Music diverts our attention from the pain to the music. Music has a calming effect that reduces muscle tension and increases oxygenation. This is another proponent that music has a sense of aliveness to it. Music has agency. It propels us through activity.
The final point I want to make regards how music influences our behavior. Music solicits different gestures, postures, and facial expressions. Music quite literally pulls these emotion-inducing responses out of us. When music lifts, so do our expressive responses and the emotional states they induce. Music lets us “off-load”, “let go”, and self regulate.
Music is so much more than just music. Music affords us and enhances our everyday lives and realities whether or not we realize it. Music shapes our perceptions and experiences. Music provides us with new opportunities and physically sharpens our abilities and attention. Music binds our mind, body, and soul. Music binds people, cultures, and societies. Music is the language we all know, feel, and understand. Music moves us. Music is alive.
Sources: Affordances and the musically extended mind, Joel Kreuger (2014).
