Language of music really is universal, study finds (fwd link)

[Aidan Wilson]

> "These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in 
> global music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly 
> emphasize the role of emotional expression in their music,"

That's a bit of a spurious claim. The more likely reason for the global 
distribution of western music above the music of other cultures is 
cultural colonisation and increasing globalisation. All this research 
appears to show is that the Mafa can adequately recognise which emotion a 
particular piece of music is intended to convey. Here's the rub:

> Their studies showed that both Western and Mafa listeners, who had never 
> before heard Western music, could recognize emotional expressions of 
> happiness, sadness, and fear in the music more often than would be 
> expected by chance. However, they report that the Mafa showed 
> considerable variability in their performance, with two of twenty-one 
> study participants performing at chance level.

And to me, it doesn't seem to be particularly spectacular.

-- 
Aidan Wilson

The University of Sydney
+612 9036 9558
+61428 458 969
aidan.wilson at usyd.edu.au

On Thu, 19 Mar 2009, phil cash cash wrote:

> Language of music really is universal, study finds
>
> Native African people who have never even listened to the radio before can
> nonetheless pick up on happy, sad, and fearful emotions in Western music,
> according to a new report published online on March 19th in Current Biology, a
> Cell Press publication. The result shows that the expression of those three
> basic emotions in music can be universally recognized, the researchers said.
>
> "These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in global
> music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly emphasize the
> role of emotional expression in their music," said Thomas Fritz of the
> Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
>
> The expression of emotions is a basic feature of Western music, and the capacity
> of music to convey emotional expressions is often regarded as a prerequisite to
> its appreciation in Western cultures, the researchers explained. In other
> musical traditions, however, music is often appreciated for other qualities,
> such as group coordination in rituals.
>
> Access full article below:
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/cp-lom031209.php
>