Emotional responses to music | Hauke Egermann | TEDxGhent

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Emotional responses to music: Individual or universal?

Have you ever wondered why music can have such a profound impact on your mood? How one song can move you to tears in 2 minutes flat and another can make you smile? Well, Dr. Egermann was wondering the same thing and thanks to two distinct but complementary research projects he will have some insights to share with us about the connection between music and our most profound emotions.

Dr. Hauke Egermann is a music & emotions researcher connected to the Technische Universität Berlin, investigating music, sound and media with empirical research methods


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[sunshinegirl]

I used to assume everyone felt music the same way and was shocked to find out they don’t. I LOVE music. I can feel it in every inch of my being and rocks my soul. I feel bad for those who don’t, they don’t know what they’re missing.

[ruantristancarlinsky]

I was surprised to hear him not mention the fact that sound is a form of energy, and that when we hear sound, it passes through our ears, which is energy which like any other energy stimulus initiates a response

[amandastevens]

I would argue that the #2 excerpt was not sad, but more of a cue to something large or imposing creeping up.

[AbhNormal]

It doesn’t matter where I am, or what I’m doing. “Godspeed” by Frank Ocean and “Hey Mama” by Kanye West will always bring tears to my eyes

[gabeisawesome]

Fun experiment you can do:
- find an emotional scene from a movie you like (one with dialogue)
- try to match the pitch of their words to the nearest notes.

It seems like we're more likely to take large steps up but only small steps down in pitch when happy. The confidence large intervals are around the baseline pitch but really high and lower than normal pitches tend to be where we reel ourselves back in.

The opposite is true when sad. We tend to save the large intervals for elevated pitch and energy. When we're close to the baseline pitch, the movements get smaller and less confident.

Minor and major scales seem to mirror this experience but in a more codified way.

It also seems that the way we structure our conversations and how we tell stories, converse, and listen to others has a big affect on what kind of music we listen to and make ourselves.

[thelastdaybreathinginetern]

I'm a metalhead. I've been a metalhead for over a decade. Metal makes me feel happy and sad and releases toxic anger within myself.

[Dle]

Music is a language used with vibrations. The overtones in a Major 3rd relationship vibrate much differently than minor 3rd. The Major 3rd is the 4th overtone in a series and is more consonant, more familiar to the ear, than the minor 3rd. This familiarity adds to the feeling of happiness. Like life, familiar things tend to make you more comfortable and happy. Minor 3rd has more dissonance, not to kind to the ear, which creates that creepy/sad sound.

Also, comparing the "sad and happy" melodies: the "happy" melody uses a Ti-Do relationship. The "sad" melody uses a Te-Do relationship. Ti-Do relationship has the most vibrations/dissonance, followed by resolve. This high amount of dissonance, to resolve, creates a strong movement. Strong movements are familiar to the ear and adds to it's happy sound/language. The Te-Do relationship is weaker in vibrations, giving it a weak movement. This creates a sadder sound/language.

[billwesley]

If you listen to the speakers voice and ignore the meaning of the words you will notice his voice moves between various pitches with various rhythms. Why? Consider that If his voice were speaking in a monotone at a monotempo he would sound as if he had no emotion.

We speak with melody to express our emotions. Try playing a you tube video in a foreign language you don't know, can you feel the emotions of a speaker talking in a language you can't understand? You will find that you can. How is this possible?

The only way this could be possible is if music of voice is like facial expression, universal and inherent. The inner ear in a fetus reaches full size at four months gestation, long before any other part of the body. This is probably so a fetus can hear the emotions in its mothers voice.

Instrumental music is just a demonstration of human skill extending this capacity to an inanimate object much like puppetry extends body language and facial expression to an inanimate object through human skill.

[isabella]

Songs I cry over:
Show yourself, from frozen
If you love me for me, from the princess and pauper
Someone you loved, Lewis capaldi
This town, Niall Horan
I see the light, from tangled
Without me, Halsey
Many, MANY many others.

[aretwodeetoo]

It's not similar to empathy, it IS empathy. You'll never be able to separate them in the lab.

[zarapoghosyan]

Few other things have the ability to communicate with our emotions in the same way that music does. It can evoke emotions in us such as joy, sorrow, excitement, relaxation, nostalgia, and even rage. The power of music to activate the pleasure regions in our brains and cause the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to feelings of pleasure and reward, is responsible for this emotional influence of music. A song's tempo, melody, lyrics, instrumentation, and vocal delivery all have an impact on the emotions it evokes. As a result, music can be a powerful instrument for healing, self-expression, and emotionally connecting with others.

[katiedangelo]

I had the deepest emotion response I have ever felt when I recently heard the song you are my sun shine... it was bizzaar... what made it weirder was after this emotional response I had a layer of 'static electricity' on my skin that lasted about 30 minutes after the experiance.... like my body was purging energy

[omdwivedi]

Indian music is so much advanced and learning it will give all answers about questions related to it. It is more than 1000 years old.

[alle]

I don’t believe that there are bad genres. There is a song for every mood. I have a lot of negative thoughts about myself and music pretty much always helps. Music is the reason i would rather go blind than deaf.

[ink]

Honestly, 1st excerpt could easily be the first few notes of some last episode ending theme, they get me every time

[edimadigabi]

I agree with the first explanation. When I listen to non-western music like Indian or Chinese I have no emotional response. One exception is Islamic Nasheeds, which evoke feelings of sadness or nervous excitement.

[douglipman]

I had high hopes for this talk, because I have been enjoying a Great Courses recording about “Music and Your Brain”.

But this talk seems underprepared. First, I can’t fully distinguish his four theories. Second, he does little to clarify the distinctions between them. Third, his conclusions about them seem vague and unsupported by the rest of his presentation.

I’d love to hear a revised version of this talk, in which he takes the time to explain clearly what he is trying to say. I believe that he knows what he’s talking about, but I’m left with the feeling I get from reading a perfunctory assignment by a freshman in a hurry: some hints of a message, but not laid out clearly enough for me to decipher the thinking involved.

[wellbodisalone]

Music will always be a great topic to talk about.

[SiThu-oecd]

Once i cried while listening to Vicent's 'starry night'

[edimadigabi]

Strangely I experience feelings of sadness or angst when I listen to some really upbeat songs like “hello Eileen” or “bittersweet symphony”.