Music itself predates much of the human ability to speak, according to neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, but what makes a love song?
“A healthy chunk (of music) has been about love, because it is a central human experience,” University of Idaho professor of voice Kyle Ferrill said.
Ferrill said that the fullness of notes and phrases can create a romantic feel. Much of the music that is considered to be romantic is actually from the Romanticism era of the arts. Most songs are considered romantic, Ferrill said, do not have harsh sounds.
“It’s about love,” Ferrill said. “Whether it is falling in love, or being jealous of someone else’s love.”
Anthropologist Helen Fisher of University of Colorado Boulder found that in the brains of young couples, when focusing on their significant other, multiple parts of the brain started to light up. One of those parts was one in charge of the most basic instincts. The brain also released two neurochemicals that are closely tied to pleasure and excitement. Chocolate and cocaine have a similar effect, according to Fisher, which is probably where the idea that love is addictive came from.
Another idea, Levitin said, has become the focus of many research studies that see if music can have the same effect on the brain as love does. As it turns out, music releases many of the same chemicals that being in love does, says Fisher and Levitin.
Levitin writes that music hits the same receptors in the brain that eating fatty foods and having sex does. So music is considered a pleasure seeking activity by some scholars, such as cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, who say that music has no purpose besides creating pleasure.
Charles Darwin believed that music was important in finding a significant other. He said that music might actually indicate biological and sexual fitness. In fact, Darwin believed that music was first created in order to charm the opposite sex, which is why music is connected to the strongest feelings people are capable of feeling.
Levitin also believed that music was important on a biological level, as well as in a romantic relationship. Music, Levitin argued, cannot be simply for pleasure because rhythms and melodies affect both the simplest as well as the most complex part of the human brain. Levitin also argues that music is better than language in creating feelings and emotions.
The combination of music and language best exemplified in a love song is the best courtship display of all, according to Levitin.
Claire Whitley
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