Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Soundtrack In Your Head
My son gave me Paul Simon's new album Surprise! for Mother's Day. It's a wonderful album, now one of my favorites, with poetic lyrics, great melody, and fabulous performances. I listen to it often. As a result, it is currently the soundtrack in my head and plays all the time. The songs from the album are "stuck in my head". I get to listen to the songs, abeit in a degraded form while I sit in meetings and take a shower. I seem not to control which song is playing and sometimes the same song plays over and over. I often have a mental soundtrack playing, which does not interfere with my thoughts otherwise.
It would be interesting to study mental soundtracks. Does everyone have this capability? My son claims he does not think he has this. I suspect he does and just hasn't paid attention to it. I would posit that this capability is what makes movie soundtracks seem normal. Why else would it seem plausible that music would be playing while the hero kisses the girl or the car chase is underway?
Music, in general, is a very interesting cognitive mystery. Just what does it do for us? Where did it come from? We enjoy it, but that is an effect, not a cause. I suspect the current uses of music are not the original purpose or purposes. It's probably an artifact. It does not seem to be related to speech - there are people with brain damage that can no longer speak, but who can sing and play music. People with excellent music skills are often better at math than English. It does seem to have social uses - synchronizing group activities. It's also romantic - relating to mating. This would be the same purpose that music has for birds, who sing to attract mates. Of course, sex would be a strong driver for the evolution of a capability. If good singers were more successful at attracting mates, singing would be highly selected for.
My son gave me Paul Simon's new album Surprise! for Mother's Day. It's a wonderful album, now one of my favorites, with poetic lyrics, great melody, and fabulous performances. I listen to it often. As a result, it is currently the soundtrack in my head and plays all the time. The songs from the album are "stuck in my head". I get to listen to the songs, abeit in a degraded form while I sit in meetings and take a shower. I seem not to control which song is playing and sometimes the same song plays over and over. I often have a mental soundtrack playing, which does not interfere with my thoughts otherwise.
It would be interesting to study mental soundtracks. Does everyone have this capability? My son claims he does not think he has this. I suspect he does and just hasn't paid attention to it. I would posit that this capability is what makes movie soundtracks seem normal. Why else would it seem plausible that music would be playing while the hero kisses the girl or the car chase is underway?
Music, in general, is a very interesting cognitive mystery. Just what does it do for us? Where did it come from? We enjoy it, but that is an effect, not a cause. I suspect the current uses of music are not the original purpose or purposes. It's probably an artifact. It does not seem to be related to speech - there are people with brain damage that can no longer speak, but who can sing and play music. People with excellent music skills are often better at math than English. It does seem to have social uses - synchronizing group activities. It's also romantic - relating to mating. This would be the same purpose that music has for birds, who sing to attract mates. Of course, sex would be a strong driver for the evolution of a capability. If good singers were more successful at attracting mates, singing would be highly selected for.
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