WHY Music Makes You Feel Good

[mammoth2ba]

Researchers say that their results “help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies”:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/01January/P ... brain.aspx" target="_blank

[Kory101]

......but it ain't good sience !

hehehe

[Donn]

The fault I find is not that there were too few subjects or any other matter of experimental rigor, it's that they somewhat misrepresent the significance.

The researchers say that their results “help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies”.

If I were to go a bluegrass concert and observe that a large percentage of audience members are grinning from ear to ear, then I could announce contradictory results: "Where previous research suggested that music is of high value across all human societies because of dopamine release, new research finds that it's because it makes people grin from ear to ear!" Dopamine sounds a lot more scientific because it's a chemical, but my point is, we're talking about an effect, not a cause.

Why music has any effect on people, whether it's an effect on dopamine levels or grin muscles, is a more interesting question.

[SousaSaver]

A better answer to this question lives within the book,

This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin

You can get it used for $1.80 on Amazon using the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-M ... 358&sr=8-1

GREAT BOOK!!!!

[peter birch]

it is a basic research error, they have taken a phenomenon that should really be subject to a qualitative research methodology or even (more appropriately in my view) to philosophical enquiry and applied a quantitative technique to it.
the error being that only research that has a numerical/statistical outcome has any validity.

[Donn]

Note that research can be useful without conclusively proving anything. I don't know if the results of this study include any interesting insights into brain function under musical stimulus, but it very well may.

But then it gets into the popular press, online "blogosphere", Tubenet, etc., and rapidly loses whatever real value it may have had, and from the quote it looks like the scientists themselves may share some of the blame for that.

[LoyalTubist]

I don't know about you but after living in the Philippines for three years, I'm sick and tired of music. Especially the loud kind.

[sloan]

......but it ain't good sience !

hehehe

It's perfectly good science. You do have to actually READ IT, instead of relying on 2nd and 3rd hand
versions of what it was about, what the question was, and what the answer means.

And, no...I won't explain it to you - that would be just another 2nd hand report.

[peter birch]

this has been a great area of philosophical enquiry, with contributions from great names such as Schoppenhauer, Nietche and Kant, more modern philosophers such as Theo Adorno and Roger Scruton
Some say that music is the closest the human mind can come to understanding the mind of God, another view (and the one that I believe) is that music has something to say that can only be said in music (because if it could be said in words you would do so) and it can only be understood in music( and this includes the answer "i don't know why it makes me feel good, I just know it does). It applies to all music, from Buxtehude to Bluegrass and nobodies understanding is any more or less valid than anyone else's. it also encompasses every human emotion from the greatest joy to the deepest misery, so perhaps a better question would be "why does music make you feel?"