Why Does Music Move Us?

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Why does music give us all the feels?

Why does music make us feel happy or sad? Or angry or romantic? How can simple sound waves cause so much emotion? I went from my comfy chair to the streets of Austin to investigate how it might be written into our neuroscience and evolution. Modern neuroscience says our brains may be wired to pick certain emotions out of music because they remind us of how people move!

Humans are the only species we know that creates and communicate using music, but it's still unclear how or why we do that, brain-wise. Is it just a lucky side effect of evolution, like Steven Pinker says? Or is it a deeper part of our evolutionary history, as people like Mark Changizi and Daniel Levitin argue?

New evolutionary science says that we may read emotion in music because it relates to how we sense emotion in people's movements. We'll take a trip from Austin to Dartmouth to Cambodia to hear why music makes us feel so many feels. The connections between movement and music go far beyond dance moves!

Special thanks to Dartmouth's Thalia Wheatley and Beau Sievers, who did the research. You can read more about it here:

Written and hosted by Joe Hanson

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[GeneticFreak]

You've never been overcome with emotion while listening to a jackhammer? Try living beside a construction site... Anger is an emotion, isn't it?

[d.e.b.b]

Not only does music effect us, it also effects animals. My parrot loves swing jazz, Count Basie in particular.

[drmether]

I’d probably be soulless in a world without music

[successfullyinsane]

Oh my gosh I don't think I could even live without a world that didn't have GASP!

[audrey]

I love music, i think i have a problem. I hear music in my head all the time

[STINKYPETEX]

Others may have sports, books, movies, but for me, it's always been music. Songs, song writing, playing instruments and writing songs. Always, and always will be. Anyone else feel the same?

[liamcanale]

You look like Mr. Incredible's boss.

[Nesi]

This video made me wondering something. If it's confirmed that there is a relationship between music and movement, could it be because we use our ears? Before you judge, think about it. We use our ears not only for listening to noises. We have the inner ear which is basically our balancing system. Could that be somehow related?

[ranguy]

Any animator who has tried to animate a character dancing to a music knows this. Music feels dynamic based on the gap between sounds. The same way an animation feels dynamic based on the time between poses. I had noticed this similarity when I was learning animation.

[tarikhistory]

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

[saikishori]

I thought I'd finally find an answer to this question I've always had, but I dont think there was an answer here. But it was informative.

[slanderalexander]

I always thought it had to do with consistency, beat, and volume. Like your choice of music would derive from your mood and your brain linking connections that will a tune to the music you listen to. Nice to see a video give a quick and simple explanation.

[bananalimemusic-yourlifesb]

I think that music can be and was used as a cathartic, emotionally healing, and aiding experience that benefitted us evolutionarily, no matter how small the difference may be. Music helps us look at the world in a new view and maybe even helped some ancient peoples survive by giving them a new way to see life-threatening/changing problems. The ability to feel music may have started as a side effect, but overall, it aided mankind.

[Darynthe]

OMG, I love that you used Opera Babes' rendition of Flower duet, you win forever.   And can you please next explain the evolutionary advantage of there being introverted people. THANKS 

[JKR]

I love music, nothing improves my mood better than a good tune

[sturlasnik]

Nice video, but you did not actually answer the question - you just stated why the question exists, which is not why i searched for this topic.

[boingomyoingo]

I think that music, books and science are three of the most important things in my life. #nerd

[teggie]

64 y.o.male here. No secret. I cry almost daily listening to certain songs. I hear a certain way a melody is played or a supreme vocalist, I often give way to tears. Whitney Houston "I will always love you" for example, at the refrain when she takes it up an octave and sings... And I will always love you, I shed happy tears her voice is so sublime. Or certain instrumental melodies. It happens quite a bit with me. But then again, I play guitar and probably appreciate music a little more differently than the average person. Not in any way being boastful.

[pho]

"Don't worry we'll only be here for a minute"
*I check how long the video is*
That's me xD

[lucasdmc]

I LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT HE LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT SHE LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT, WE LIKE MOVE