Music Excites across Culture
Music Excites: It's part of being human.
A lot of us have a deeply personal connection to certain songs, but science has provided evidence to the idea that some reactions to music are universal.
Research conducted by McGill University, the University of Montreal and the Technische Universität has uncovered that some of these effects are universal, knowing no cultural boundary.
Their study tested 19 musical sequences on 40 test patients of Canadian descent and 40 test subjects of Mbenzélé Pygmy decent. The first group should be familiar to anyone with a love for maple syrup, hockey and Ryan Gosling. The latter test group trace their lineage deep into the Congolese rainforest. The Mbenzélé Pygmy’s lifestyle is radically different from their Canadian counterparts; they are a very isolated group of people rich with their own culture.
The musical extracts chosen lasted between 30 – 90 seconds, with 11 Western Pieces (included music from movies like Star Wars, Psycho & Schlinders List) and 8 Pygmy pieces.
At the end of each piece of music, the subject identified how that piece of music made them feel by choosing from a range of emoticons that represented various emotions, such as happiness, anxiety, sadness, fear, calmness, excitement, etc. To measure the physical effect of each piece, the subject’s heart rate, respiration rate and the amount of sweat on their palms was monitored.
Both test groups indicated similar feelings of calmness & excitement
The research team found there were significant similarities in how listeners in each group reacted to each piece of music. Study author Hauke Egermann, of the Technische Universität Berlin stated:
"Our major discovery is that listeners from very different groups both responded to how exciting or calming they felt the music to be in similar ways."
Hauke Egermann
Egermann hypothesizes that the test subject’s shared reactions may be due to the tempo, pitch or timbre of the music; noting that further research is warranted. The reactions of getting excited or being calmed by the same music may prove to be a universal characteristic; however there were some differences in reactions between the two test groups. The Canadian test group seemed to resonate more with western music, displaying a wide breadth of emotions when listening to western musical pieces; compared with Pygmies reaction to both western music and their own.
In general, Pygmies reported more positive feelings overall; regardless of the style of music they listened to. According to study author Nathalie Fernando, of the faculty of music at the University of Montreal, these difference between test groups in emotional reaction and range, may be the result of music cultural significance to each test group.
"Music is used in this culture to evacuate all negative emotions, so it is not really surprising that the Mbenzélé feel that all the music they hear makes them feel good."
Nathalie Fernando
This interesting use of music as therapy to remove negative imbalance and promote positive emotions is contrasted with Western consumption of music. The Western consumption of music ranges incredibly broadly from sad, depressing melodies to pumping, energizing, and uplifting songs.
Based on their findings, the team believes while culture can influence an individual's reactions to music, some responses are universal.
See more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150107162224.htm