Hey Bill Nye, 'What Makes Music so Human and so Powerful?' #TuesdaysWithBill | Big Think

'What Makes Music so Human and so Powerful?' #TuesdaysWithBill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is called the universal language — music — yet speakers of different languages prefer different genres. Cultures that communicate using tonal languages, for example, have markedly different musical traditions than western languages. Yet the primacy of music across so many distinct human cultures suggests a deeply embedded drive to create it — and groove to it. In this video, Bill Nye talks science, culture, and musical notation.

Recalling his college psychology classes (Mr. Nye is a career engineer, but sometimes we like to throw him a curve ball), the Science Guy knows that dogs respond to octaves, defined as the doubling of the pitch frequency. So certain qualities of music that are also found in speech affect behavior in natural ways, which also suggests that musical qualities are buried deep in our evolutionary history.

Responding to Big Think fan Aiden, from California, Bill Nye does what he has done throughout his career as a popular science educator: encourage young people to be diligent in their studies, whether the subject is science or music. So if you want to get to Carnegie Hall, it is going to take a lot of practice. After all, refining millions of years of evolutionary forces and expressing it through a string or a brass tube is not easy. And if you want to play jazz, make sure you include a major seventh cord (which is not bad musical knowledge for an engineer).

Ultimately, says Bill Nye, whatever drives us to create music is so deep within us it must serve a very basic purpose. And what purpose is more basic, more fundamental, than procreation? Likely none, and there is likely no greater purpose belonging to music, evolutionarily speaking, than to bring people close together — very close together.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle's home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live." This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®" was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate. While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children's books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs." Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries" airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye" airs on PBS stations across the country. Bill's latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens." It's about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you'll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There's also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It's fun for him; he's an engineer with an energy conservation hobby. Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
Aides: Hey Bill Nye, Aiden from California. I'm a musician, a songwriter, and I really would like to know what makes music so human and powerful in its nature? Thank you.

Bill Nye: Well Aiden, as you know I know everything. I don't know why but it sure is deep within us. Now, I remember when I was in school people in psychology class talked about dogs responding to octaves, that is the doubling of the frequency. And so there may be something to that that there are natural resonances that appeal to us that have something to do with our voices. I mean I'm not an expert on this but I've .....

[mayalucas]

I have a lot of respect for people who are willing to admit that they don't have all the answers, and yet will still try to make an educated guess. Carry on, Bill.

[godfreyfrancesco]

I love the seriousness on Bill's face at the beginning of the video. "Well, as you know, I know absolutely everything."

[Nate_ROB_]

i love that Bill is basically fed up with getting all of these ridiculously challenging questions and he just comes right out and says it lol.

[-.._.-_...-_.._-..__..._.-.-.-]

Sex isn't the answer. Sex is the question. Yes is the answer.

[matthewhellmers]

I read a book a while ago (I can't remember what it was called) in which the Earth was specifically created for the purpose of creating the universes most beautiful music. We were given a perfect atmosphere and brains to create harmonies and complex melodies that the universe had never heard before.

[darkxxhimxxlight]

It is all about emotional response. When we hear a song that we like, we tend to attach an emotion to it. Be it, happy, sad or just blah. So from then on, typically, we will associate that song with that emotion or associate that emotion with that song. Think of a song that takes you back in time, one that nakes you think of a specific time or place or person. That is all it is. As for what makes us like specific songs as opposed to others, it could be as simple as the new song you love has a resemblance to another, musically and/or lyrically. But, then again, you could just be an impressionable person who takes cues from your peers like 100% of people who like pop music. (It is called pop [popular] for a reason) Or, you could be shallow and just like an "artist" because they are hot while not really liking the song or even knowing what they are singing about. There are too many factors as to why music does what it does to people, it is up to only you to know or interpret why it means what it means to you. No one else can explain to YOU what music means to YOU, or anyone else for that matter.

[ASlopedRoof]

hes right we know very little about why music is appealing, i believe there are only hypotheses and no theories yet. i think there are hypotheses about pattern recognition in a mathematical setting, attractiveness of the singer, uniqueness of the song or singer, certain scales that match the intensity of the current mood you're in (which correlates with the heart beat), the social acceptance your brain believes it gets(which is why pop music can be trash but teen girls will like it), the ability of the singer to make unique and impressive sounds(like a male singing with a high pitched voice that doesnt crack), and a whole number more of things that are all probably involved in it, but hes right with it probably being towards attracting a mate, which is probably tied in with the over arcing social acceptance thing. since its has so many angles to look at, its a little much for the barely funded studies that look at one angle like using an MRI machine for the brain to actually explain it all and come up with a real theory about it.

[Xeirus]

Was going to question why this was being asked, but Bill did it in the first few seconds.
Good man.

[mantovannni]

Music is from the soul of the musician to the soul of the listener, in my opinion. That's why music resonates powerfully with people.

[vincentvaleur]

Bills just getting questions about stuff he hasn't studied, you should have got a musician for this or at the very least a biologist.

[KnightsAndDarths]

What indeed—The fact that music is an art form probably, and art, all art, gets an emotional response from us by speaking to our imagination. That's how it communicates beauty, how it cheers, how it accesses the whole spectrum of Human emotion.

[krokodyl]

Listening to music of all types and their lyrics brings out a variety of emotions in me.
Music is delicious!!

[TheKSProduction]

These videos really need to be longer. Like round 6 or 7 minutes in length. And people need to start asking more I ALWAYS LOOK FORWARD TO THESE OH MY GOD JESUS HIT WOO!!!!

[shipwreck]

So here's a question. Does music influence our movement, or does our movement influence our music? When a human is walking, we generally walk at the same frequency as drum beats in most popular music. Footsteps create a low pitch noise, and drums create a low pitch noise. I'm not certain about this, but from the evidence at hand, I would presume that the rhythm in a song is based off of our walking pattern.

[hadara]

They should have asked ME! Music predates language. It also lights up almost the entire brain according to scans. The fact that birds sing and other animals use sound to communicate should tell you that the appeal of music is VERY primal. SO primal that it may have played a huge part in our very evolution! People are right, BigThink needs to screen the questions better for Bill. Ask this of a musician/neurologist or something...

[EliaMagyar]

Wow, that answer was surprisingly very unsatisfying

[johnpaulvavavlogs]

in my opinion music is powerful because it expresses the feelings of the person singing or doing it and it makes the person heard it connect to them and create a state that the same as the music express.

[NotAlrightSpider]

Music is the answer. Everyone just hasn't thought of the question yet.

[Ragnarockalypse]

Bill is a brilliant man, but we do do these questions a disservice by having him answer ones that are way outside of his field or perhaps interest.

[re_animator]

Music, like Bill said is about attracting a mate, music is not just human, animals do it, birds do it, insects do it. Music is one way of telling whether or not a mate will be competent, mentally and physically. If you can't reproduce musical patterns you might not attract a mate so easily.