Why do you want to know whether music has the same effect on everyone?
Every culture has music, so if we want to understand humans, we need to understand why music is there and why it is used in different ways. Deciphering what aspects of it are dependent on our basic biology and what aspects are dependent on culture will help us find answers to these questions.
You played movie tunes to Mbenz茅l茅 pygmies in the Congo rainforest. Why them?
Their exposure to Western music was nil: they are hunter-gatherers who live in the forest. They rarely go into big cities and they don鈥檛 have radios.
You also played the tunes to a group of Canadians. So is music a universal language?
In some ways, yes. Emotional arousal was the same in both groups 鈥� a reflection of whether the music was exciting or restful. That was assessed subjectively by the listeners, and objectively by measuring heart rate, breathing and so on. This common response is probably driven by certain acoustic properties, such as tempo.
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Why would some elements of music do this?
Arousal is probably linked in evolutionary terms to preparation to deal with a threat or new situation. When music accelerates or suddenly gets shrieky, for example, it seems to cue this alert response 鈥� the heart rate rises and so on.
What aspects of the music did not prompt a universal response?
We looked at whether the music evoked happy/joyful or sad/scary feelings, and got a positive/negative rating. We used music from three films: the melancholy theme from Schindler鈥檚 List, the scary shower scene from Psycho and the upbeat Cantina scene tune from Star Wars. The Canadians reacted as you might expect. For the pygmies, we got no clear physiological results and subjectively, they found all the music negative.
Why might the Mbenz茅l茅 not like the Western music?
All the pygmies鈥� is highly arousing and positive. They feel negative emotions disrupt the harmony of the forest and they depend on the forest and so they want it to be happy.
What is the Mbenz茅l茅鈥檚 own music like?
Mostly vocal, with some clapping and beating on log drums, but of a sophistication that is comparable to Western symphonic music, with extraordinary polyphonies and polyrhythms.
Did they have a favourite movie tune?
Music for them is functional 鈥� they don鈥檛 sit around and consume it. Music accompanies various kinds of activities. I don鈥檛 think the idea of having a favourite would make sense to them.
Did the field work in Congo go smoothly?
For the pygmies, if you can鈥檛 dance to it, it鈥檚 not music. It took some persuading to get them to sit still for the research.
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Stephen McAdams is professor of music research at Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and also Canada Research Chair in Music Perception and Cognition. His research is published in
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淛ungle boogie鈥�
