Why do we like Music? – Part 2 – Answer: Fractals?

In part 1 of this essay, we looked briefly at the history of music and at possible explanations for its universal appeal.  Today, I want to discuss three recent pieces of  research which further support and expand on what we’ve already discussed. Music evolves As stated previously, it was specifically my inability to appreciate Chinese Opera, that finally convinced me of the cultural origins of music’s appeal, but some interesting research from Imperial College London recently came to light, which seems to further support this position. Using a computer to create, “breed” and mutate random sequences of sounds, using the subjective ratings of human volunteers as selection criteria, the researchers showed how after a few thousand generations, the sequences had evolved towards something significantly more “musical” than those with which they’d started. For me this resonated well with my previous thoughts that we are attracted to certain music, not because of any innate capability of these sound patterns to affect our brains, but because we have learned to associate certain music with certain occasions, emotions and feelings. Music is good for our brains Although the effects measured may not have been as dramatic as those created by DreamZone in my novel Connected, a recent study by a team of researchers from Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, found that  …childhood music instruction has strong linguistic benefits and improves performance on everyday listening tasks. Also that: There is a body of research that suggests music training not only improves hearing, it bolsters a suite of brain functions. Musically trained kids do...