Smooth jazz, hip-hop, lo-fi, and pop..,  Music could please and control minds.  But why is that so? Why does our brain like to hear a particular beat and tempo? And how can we differentiate between a “sound” and a good melody?

Today we uncover the secret of Music, what it is, why it sounds so good, and why our emotions can change with sound.

What is Music?

Is any sound you hear called Music, or a set of well-coordinated beats called Music? Well, the answer is a combination of such assumptions. In general terms, Music is a collection of coordinated sounds or rhythms.

 
It is made of sounds, vibrations, and even moments of silence. It doesn't always have to be loud and clear or sound good all the time. But it always conveys an experience and has the power to change emotions.

Noise VS Music

Cacophony or “noise” is different from music as music is always systematic. Even complex jazz music. In fact, the main difference between sound and music is that music almost always has repetition and variety.

Think of any song, any beat you have ever heard, it always has some form of repetition. And why do we love repetition? Well, that's because we can follow the song easily and sing along with it( pretty simple really) and that’s why many of our favorite artist love to incorporate similar iterations of beats in their music along with the repetition of lyrics and beat. Like Charlie Puth did here !

So why is Music catchy?

Well, that's easy. Once again repetition takes the cake. And that doesn't mean that you keep repeating the same note, that would be mindless. But rather mixing it up with other notes. That helps our brain to get distracted from the previous monotonous note and look at the new one. And this is basically the fundamental idea of creating good music.

And when we hear this Music, our brain releases dopamine, which is basically a happy chemical we get, from our reward system. Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourselves, almost every 20th-century pop hit has the (almost) same basic structure: Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, and Bridge lines. Still? Here’s a link to a study from Wikipedia.

Conclusion

Good music gives us “the chills”, which are able to directly affect our brains. It even increases blood flow to certain parts of the brain regions such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, etc. It even has the power to change our emotions. So using Music effectively can make your bad day, good, make a rainy day sunny, and your shower into a music club.

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My Blog and me

Hey! It’s Steven! I am a high school student who has orbited the sun about 16 times. And this is my blog, where I talk about the internet, science, technology, and the world around us along with a few of my adventures exploring it. I hope you like reading my content, as much as I love creating it!
New post every week! hopefully :)