A PBS article on music and how it is processed in the brain found that as we develop our brain is wired for the music of a certain area. “If you're born listening to Chinese opera, your brain is going to become wired to the rules of that musical form. If you're born listening to Pakistani music, Indian music, Indian ragas, your brain will become wired to those. Our brain is plastic, and malleable, and able to wire itself up to whatever language we hear, to learn those rules.” This also means that people are wired with the ability to understand music. He thinks we learn the rules subconsciously just by listening to our culture’s music. He also finds that good music does make us think because it breaks the standards our prefrontal cortex has come to expect. At the end the reporter addresses the fear that knowing how the brain processes music will reduce our enjoyment of it, but the neuroscientist says that he has only come to love it more by knowing how complicated it is. This article seems to fit the idea we discussed that high music is that which makes a lasting impression and causes us to think.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june07/music_02-05.html
Do you feel music should make us think more or feel more?
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