A Musical Species

Humans have listened to music for thousands of years. From the earliest vocal music to the

computerized music popular today, music has existed in every human culture throughout history. Despite its ubiquity, there is much

dissent among experts on the origin of music–specifically, whether or not it is an

evolutionary adaptation, or simply a treasured and widespread invention.

By Caroline Atkinson

!

!

! WALKING THROUGH THE HALLWAYS OF MY high school, school spirit is not the first word that would come to mind. On the average stroll through the locker-lined hallways, you’ll see most people looking straight ahead to where they are going. Others have their headphones in, their heads down. On spirit days, days meant to unify the student body by having us dress according to a theme, most of the participants are from the club or organizations sponsoring the spirit day. For all of the attempts of school administrators and clubs to create school unity, the means by which unity was finally

achieved for a few minutes is almost laughable. Every Friday at my school, a different club gets to choose music to play over the loudspeakers in between classes. One day, one of the clubs chose to play “I Found a Way” by Drake Bell, the Drake and Josh theme song. Within seconds, people were singing along and dancing. For a school that’s not exactly known for its spirit or enthusiasm, this was unprecedented. It was great. Everyone was pointing at their friends, laughing, and mouthing the words. Where spirit days and spirit wear had failed, music succeeded in bringing the school together as a community, if only for a few minutes between classes. ! So why do humans listen to music? The obvious reason–and the one most people can relate to–is entertainment. From passively listening to a Pandora station on the way to work or school, to singing along at a concert, to actually performing, music is ubiquitous in the lives of many people. For many of these people, music serves as both entertainment and a means of connecting to other people. Oliver Sacks, professor of Neurology at New

York University, believes that “in all societies, a primary function of music is collective and communal, to bring and bind people together. People sing together, dance together, in every culture, and one can imagine them doing so, around the first fires, a hundred thousand years ago.” Sacks argues that music has served a purpose in society. Music has bonded humans together, and communicated emotions and messages. Religious songs allowed people to bond and solidify their religion. War songs motivated and coordinated troops. Many songs simply boosted morale or entertained its listeners. The ability of music to unify societies and groups of people explains why music has continued to be used and enjoyed by humans, but it

doesn’t address why humans were drawn to music in the first place. !Ethnomusicologists—scientists who study music in a cultural context—have not decided on an answer. Is music an evolutionary adaptation, or did people invent music based on their capacities for language, empathy, and emotion? For animals like songbirds, of course, music is an evolutionary adaptation. Songbirds sing to attract mates or defend territory. At some

point in history, birds who could sing were able to attract more mates, so they reproduced more, increasing their evolutionary fitness. Natural selection took over, and the ability to sing was then passed along to future generations of birds. Songbirds have clearly evolved to have a capacity for music, and have passed the trait along to their offspring. ! Some experts believe humans use music in the same ways as songbirds–to attract mates. In an interview, University of New Mexico professor of psychology Geoffrey Miller summarizes Darwin’s theory that music is in fact an evolutionary adaptation. Miller argues that “[Darwin] knew that music didn't need to have a "survival value" for the individual or the group; it could spread through purely reproductive benefits. He suggested that the more musically talented proto-humans attracted more sexual partners, or higher-quality sexual partners, than their less-musical rivals.” Miller and Darwin believe that humans use music in a ways similar to those of songbirds. They believe that humans use music to find and appear

more attractive to potential mates. Darwin and Miller believe that musical talent would make humans more fit, and thus a talent for music would be perpetuated by

natural selection. Miller and Darwin’s beliefs, however, are

unpopular ones. In the same interview, New York University professor of psychology Gary Marcus quickly refutes Miller. Marcus argues that even if music has been used by humans to attract mates in the past, that fact alone is not reason enough to consider music an evolutionary advantage. Marcus states that “People might equally choose their mates based on SAT scores, but that doesn't

mean the brain evolved for taking SATs.” Simply possessing a talent or skill does, and being more fit because of that skill, does not make it an evolutionary adaptation. Musical ability may have made certain humans more attractive or helped bind societies together, but that does not mean music is an evolutionary adaptation.

In drawing his conclusion, Marcus also takes into account the lack of fossil evidence proving that the earliest humans possessed musical instruments. The oldest instrument known is 35,000 years old, which is “a blink in an evolutionary time.” Although the oldest instruments may not be that old on an evolutionary scale, there is fossil evidence on the vocal tracts of Neanderthals that suggests that vocal music could be much older than instrumental music. Even this, however, does not necessarily prove that humans have evolved to be a musical species. The music humans listened to a thousand years ago would hardly be considered music today. Marcus notes that “virtually every modern song revolves around harmony, but harmony is an invention that is only a thousand years old.” The qualities that most people today associate with music–harmony, or a predictable time signature–did not even exist when the earliest humans discovered music. Humans may have not evolved to be musically inclined, but music as a cultural invention has certainly evolved throughout history.

...!! IN HIS BOOK, HOW THE MIND WORKS, HARVARD professor of psychology Steven Pinker agrees with Marcus’s assertion that music is more of a cultural invention than an evolutionary adaptation. Pinker compares music to a kind of “auditory cheesecake.” By this, Pinker means that music is simply a happy coincidence that just happens to stimulate human brains in ways that humans have evolved to find pleasurable. According the cheesecake metaphor, humans who had predilections for energy-providing fatty foods or sugary fruits tended to be more fit than their non-fat and sugar loving counterparts, and thus humans evolved to like fatty and sugary foods. Cheesecake happens to satisfy these desires for fat and sugar, but humans certainly didn’t evolve to like cheesecake. They invented it to fulfill their likes and needs. In this sense, music is “auditory cheesecake.” The needs and wants that cheesecake fulfills are somewhat obvious, but the question of what needs music fulfills is more puzzling. ! Dr. Robert Zatorre, of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, may have an answer. In his essay Music of the Hemispheres, James Shreeve, Executive Editor of Science for National Geographic magazine, quotes Dr. Zatorre, saying that “The evolutionary pressure for a

The Divje Babe Flute, found in Slovenia, is estimated to be about 35,000 years old, although

some estimates indicate it could be as old as 43,000 years.

highly specialized auditory process in the human brain must have come from language.” Humans evolved to be able to speak. In doing so, specialized auditory regions of the brain developed. Shreeve elaborates on Zatorre’s ideas, arguing that “to process the complex, rapid-fire demands of language as fast as possible, it would make sense to bring it under the control of one hemisphere.” There are parts of the auditory system throughout the entire brain, but when language was centralized to the left hemisphere of the brain, that left some regions of the auditory system “less busy.” Since these regions no longer had the responsibility of language, they started to process music.! Around the same time that Pinker proposed his cheesecake hypothesis, Susan Milius argued in an article published in Natural History Magazine that music “could tickle pleasure out of cognitive circuitry that evolved for more practical purposes, such as sorting out individual sounds from a noisy environment.” Satisfying such a specific desire, like the cheesecake satisfying the desire for fat or sugar, would explain why humans originally were drawn to music, but it wouldn’t necessarily explain why music has become so widespread and revered in cultures and societies throughout history. While many experts on the subject don’t agree on the role of music in human evolution, no one disputes the ubiquity and importance of music in human culture. In addition to being used as entertainment, music can have religious significance to and an emotional impact on its listeners. It can unify people, communicate emotions, and remind a society or community of a common goal. Those certainly aren’t things cheesecake can do.

...!! ONE OF THE REASONS MUSIC HAS BECOME SO deeply ingrained in human society is that listening to music is an empathetic action. Whether it’s through happily singing along with your friends at a concert, feeling a sense of togetherness and solidarity singing a hymn at church, or wallowing in sorrow listening to one of Taylor Swift’s weepier songs, almost everyone has experienced someone else’s emotions by listening to a song. For me, I can’t help but smile every time I hear “It’s a Beautiful Day” by Michael Bublé. It’s just such a happy song. The lyrics of the song aren’t even particularly happy, but you can feel the upbeat energy of Michael Bublé just by listening. Similarly, hearing “Upside Down” by Jack Johnson can remind me of being 8 years old and feeling

the childish sense of wonder, excitement, and curiosity I would get when I found something cool while exploring in my backyard. Although almost everyone has experienced the empathetic nature of music, a recent study has found an actual neurological basis for an empathetic response. At the University of California–Los Angeles, neurologists Istvan Molnar-Szakacs and Katie Overy looked at brain

scans of monkeys and humans to determine what neurons were active when the test subjects watched other test subjects perform specific actions or experience specific emotions. The study found that when you watch someone else do something, the neurons associated with that activity will fire. As musician David Byrne puts it in his book

How Music Works, “If you are watching an athlete, for example, the neurons that are associated with the same muscles the athlete is using will fire. Our muscles don’t move, and sadly there’s no virtual workout or health benefit from watching other people exert themselves, but the neurons do act as if we are mimicking the observed.” Similarly, when you see someone smile, the neurons in the muscles you use to smile will fire. Additionally, the neurons in your brain associated with the emotion you are seeing also fire. These neurons are called “mirror neurons” because they mirror the emotions a person is seeing. This might not seem that strange, but the study also found that simply hearing an activity being done will cause the associated neurons to fire. When you hear a piano, the neurons in your hands and fingers will fire, as if you were mimicking the hand movements of the pianist. The researches at UCLA proposed that these mirror neurons facilitate an empathetic response to listening to music. The neurons allow us to relate to what the musician is doing not only physically, but also emotionally. ! This emotional response to music is what has allowed it to become so universal and ubiquitous is cultures today and throughout history. At some point in human history, music was discovered, and is has been used to communicate, entertain, and bond ever since. Although humans may not have evolved to be musical creatures like songbirds, the human capacities for language and emotion have allowed music and humans to become inseparable. Music binds people together, and allows them to connect in ways deeper and more memorable than language can. Whether it’s something as simple as the Drake and Josh theme song finally sparking some school unity, to something as sacred and important as a hymn used in a religious ritual, music has shown it’s importance throughout human history. Regardless of the origin of music in human culture, it has clearly proved its importance.

“In addition to being used as entertainment, music can have religious significance to and an emotional impact on its listeners.”