Why do humans enjoy music?

Answer 1

It is for the same reason that pretty much all cultures consider vertical lines and gentle curves to be aesthetically pleasing: INSTINCT.

Think about it. There are certain sounds that - to our ancestors - were typically present when they were safe. There were also certain sounds that were typically present when they were in danger. And in any number of other situations. Those individuals who were sensitive to those sounds had a survival advantage... and so most of us continue to respond to them to this day.

Music, of course, is NOT a natural sound, except in its most abstract form. But music is a lot like sugar. Before mankind began to cultivate vast fields of sugar cane and add sugar (or honey) to many of the foods we ate, sugary foods were still popular... it's just that they had to be obtained from natural sources. Nowdays when someone thinks of something sweet, they probably think of a Twinkie or something, and nowadays when something thinks of an evocative sound, they think of music.

I leave it mostly as an exercise to you to consider what kinds of sounds had what kinds of natural parallels. One obvious example is a drum beat and a heart beat. This can even be measured in test subjects in the lab - fast, loud drumbeats actually CAUSE a person's heat to beat faster and harder as he listens, and vice versa for slower rhythms.

But that's why humans (and MANY other creatures) enjoy music. It is a purification of instinctively stimulating sounds. Peace.

Answer 2

One thing that seems to separate humans from animals is that our brains recognize and react to patterns in nature on a conceptual level. This allows us to interpret things like rhythm, harmony, dissonance and repetition. While some animals also recognize pattern, it's instinctual or muscle memory versus their brains actually interpreting in.

Example: Try to teach any animal to sing a song. Some avian creatures and some mammals can repeat the tones and harmonies that they hear, but they can't create songs. They only repeat what they hear. It's a muscle memory....their vocal chords at work. They don't seem to have the cognitive ability to understand and remember the complex patterns, rhythms and repetitions of music.

Thus music represents much more than what makes humans dance, sing, and feel good. On a very fundamental level, all music is math. From the time signature of a song to musematic and discursive repetition.

The human brain can calculate, observe both direct and abstract relations, interpret complex patterns and store memories much longer than animals. While some animals display some of these abilities, none of them display them ALL at the level that humans do.

Music was probably one of the earliest signs that humans had evolved beyond their primate ancestry. It was the first indication that our brains had developed in areas where other animals' had not.

I think on some level our brains CRAVES these types of patterns, almost like fundamental math is a drug to us. We think of the whole world in numbers so music really does help keep the brain active. Even if you aren't aware of it, your brain is happy every time you turn on the radio!

Answer 3

Everything wonderful about humanity is distilled into the concentrated emotion that is music. It is important to so many people because it is visceral, it comes from our very gut.
Do you remember something from your childhood that gave you great joy or pain. Well take that and purify it down to its purest consituency - that is music. It is an aural narcotic that humans are addicted to. Like real drugs the purer and more concentrated it is, the more compelling it is.
It is sonic emotion and emotion is the one characteristic that humans have abundantly more than any other living creature. It makes us what we are and life without emotion would not be worth living.
We have love, passion, anger and desire like no other beings. Music then embodies everything that it is to be human.

Answer 4

We are a mass of frequencies ourselves - at the quantum level. Emotionally, psychologicaly we tune into different types of music because they resonate with being.

When I was eleven - playing drop the needle on a record in an older friend's home - I suddenly heard "Vesti la Giubba" and started crying because I was no longer alone. Became an opera singer as a result.

Answer 5

We have been forced by our parents and culture to learn aboutn and appreciate music from birth. We are forced to recognize the noise (as sensed by the ear) as something pleasurable. It is the same mechanism that is used to learn your culture's language. No conditioning, no appreciation, no pleasure. I do not 'enjoy' all forms of music and doubt that you do but could, if forced, gain an appreciation that could turn into enjoyment.

Answer 6

Music is a great past time. Also, it quiets down the storm of emotions that tend to control a good quantity of the human populace.

Answer 7

Its relaxing. It brings back nolstagic memories of love experience of times gone by. It puts a smile on your face or it could bring a tear to your eyes. You hum along the music. You could even dance a little on your own. It brings laughter and pain which remind us how precious life is. That's why i enjoy music.

Answer 8

I don't know, but I find it fascinating that just about every human culture in every time period throughout history, all over the world, has had some sort of music.

Kurt Vonnegut once said, "If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

Answer 9

I think at some level we are all vibrational beings and somehow we can relate to music vibrationally as well as emotionally....really good question I look forward to reading the other answers.

Answer 10

i don't know about any other type of music but when I'm bumping rap music in my ear,it's like the rappers is saying whats in our minds and put a beat on it.that's why most people who live in bad neighborhoods listen to it becuz the rappers are the voice of the streets