Week 7: Music, Evolution, and Sexual Selection

I thoroughly enjoyed Levitin’s Chapter 9 – The Music Instinct: Evolution’s #1 Hit.  I have never had much exposure to biology or interest in related fields of science, however Levitin’s perspectives on the relationship between evolution and music were fascinating.  Especially since I was reading this around the time of Darwin’s 200^th birthday and read in Rolling Stone Magazine (Issue 1073, Mar 5, 2009, p. 41) that only 39% of Americans believe in evolution.

  One cannot assume that all musicians and those who study the field are full believers in the evolution/music connection.  Therefore, Levitin made a bold statement in this chapter and proved that music’s evolutionary role is more than just “auditory cheesecake.” I respect the author’s views and I am thankful that this chapter opened up a field of interest for me.  I know now the evolution is more than just “survival of the fittest.”  There is also the fascinating game of successfully passing on genes, which includes sexual selection.

  On p. 245, the author begins to discuss the role of music in sexual selection and quotes Darwin’s theory that, “musical notes and rhythms were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex. Thus musical tones became firmly associated with some of the strongest passions an animal is capable of feeling and are consequently used instinctively …” (Levitin, 2006).

  When seeking mates, one will look for someone who is physically/sexually fit, healthy, who will provide children. Yet, Darwin claims that music also served as a means of courtship! Just like certain birds parade their plumage to attract mates, and other animals sound off mating calls – it just makes sense that music would also play a significant role in sexual selection, which correlates with theories of natural selection. Levitin further states that across cultures the ability to dance and make music is a marker of physical, sexual, and mental fitness.   Many studies have shown that a male mate who is creative trumps wealth in the minds of females.

  Where do these theories fit in with current issues we have been covering in class?  First, this “sexual selection attraction” could explain why record labels capitalize on attractive-looking musicians (i.e. the Jonas Brothers and other boy bands). They know the opposite sex will go crazy for them and buy into their music, concerts, and merchandise.  These musicians are not only physically attractive, but also talented and wealthy. All these characteristics combined make them quite irresistible to the opposite sex. Not to mention that interest in music peaks during adolescence.  Therefore, the labels know exactly which demographic to target … knowing that some form of attraction is evolutionarily guaranteed.

  Furthermore, I’ve often witnessed a phenomenon that I’ve dubbed as “lead-singer syndrome.” This occurs when a lead singer/musician may not be “physically attractive” according to social norms, or maybe even according to a particular person’s tastes. However, the fact that this musician is creatively talented, in the spotlight, and successful – makes them incredibly attractive! It is almost like the musician casts a spell over he audience.  When in actuality, the creative traits being displayed are genetically irresistible to the opposite sex.  Levitin reminds us “it is difficult to separate out innate, evolutionary derived preferences for mating partners from our societally and culturally induced tastes in sexual partners” (2006).

  As I read more about the connections between music and the brain, I cannot help but relate this information to the library field.  At the least, I try to figure out if there is potential.  For example, Levitin mentions in chapter 9, that music has become a spectator activity where experts performed well-rehearsed pieces.  This type of music is considered “civilized.”  However, looking back at the history of music it is apparent that music and dance were inseparable.  While a child dancing in the aisles of a classical concert may be chastised as uncivilized behavior, they are actually displaying a natural ability innate to humans. Levitin claims that recently the ties between musical sound and human movement have been minimized (2006).   This theory led to to reflect on my story times with young children.  They most popular aspect of the program is music.  The children go crazy for the silliest songs.  They love to learn dances and improvise movement on their own.  Is their reaction true to nature?  And have we become more “civilized” by squashing this innate desire in children?

  Additionally, Levitin cites evidence on p. 252 for the social-bonding basis of music and research with children and adults with certain disorders.   Music also affects the social bonding and cohesion of relationship between young adults.  Similar to other demographics, teenagers have moved to the digital realm to find and share music.  This virtual space allows for bands and fans to connect, the sharing of music and playlists, and the opportunity for music fans and musicians worldwide to bond with each other online.   Therefore, are we entering a new age of evolution – a cultural evolution that leads to a sort of digital evolution?  A special kind of evolution where “digital” becomes the main messenger of music-related natural selection across individuals and generations. Or, are we becoming entrenched in abundant access to culture/music?  Going digital does what to evolution … are we going to rely more and more on machines to evolve? Will humans be more connected to the digital world than the physical as we develop toward this “music like water” future?

 

Week 6: Music Sociology

The readings this week were so fascinating that I am going to break this entry into sections so that I can discuss all the topics I found of interest.

Ear Worms

In Chapter 5, Levitin has finally exposed me to the official term of song-stuck-your-head syndrome, also known as ear worms. I wish I knew about this after I watched the movie Mamma Mia. For days, weeks following I was humming and singing to every tune from the movie. I would hear one key word like “money” and suddenly break out into the song “Money, money, money.” Then the song would be stuck in my head for days.

Ever though musicians are more prone to this syndrome, non musicians feel the effects of ear worms also. Levitin explains that our neural circuits get stuck in “playback mode,” and most of the time it is only a portion of the song, 15-30 seconds of auditory short-term memory. In my case, it is always the main verse. However, I would love for someone to research the intricacies of music by ABBA. What is it about there songs that promote ear worms, almost like a subliminal message to your brain indicating that this tune WILL STICK in your memory! I wonder if ABBA was aware of music/neurological research and, thus, cleverly composed songs with specifically encoded tempos, rhythms, and pitch to induce that “playback mode?” If so, it was a brilliant marketing idea.

Tagging our memories

I remember every theme song from every tv show I watched when younger. However, I can barely remember the correct tunes to popular songs played over and over today. In Chapter 8, Levitin reminds us that our music tastes expand with age and then somewhat regress as we get older. Young children prefer simple songs and as they grow older they seek out more complex, challenging music because they have the brain capacity to concentrate and relate to this new auditory input. Then, things slow down as memory loss sets in with older age. The profound tunes from our youth stick because there are emotionally charge memories attached to this music. Levitin describes our brain’s neurotransmitters as tagging these memories as something important.

Not to mention, some of the most emotionally charges years are when you’re a teenager – full of self-discovery and experimentation. Music is an important facet of developing a teen’s identity. Levitin mentions that, most importantly, music is a social phenomenon during the teen years. It provides a means for bonding, dressing alike, and sharing activities. “This ties into the evolutionary idea of music as a vehicle for social bonding and societal cohesion … a mark of personal and group identity and of distinction” (Levitin, 2006, p. 226). Grappling with this theory is astounding! Therefore, music we listen to in our formative teen years effect our brains, social behavior, identity and our evolutionary strides.

Thankfully, humans have the potential for “neuroplasticity” – the ability of the brain to reorganize itself. So, as an adult you can appreciate new music, learn to play an instrument, maybe speak a foreign language. It will be difficult, though. Children and young adults have the neuroplasticty to make these new connections. Therefore, youth is prime time for developing musical preferences … and striving to be the next violin virtuoso while becoming fluent in Mandarin and Latin.

Schemas

Relating back to the ear worms, maybe ABBA sticks in my head because the songs are quite simple and repetitive. However, I get really sick of their music quickly. Levitin says that for music to matter to us it has to strike the right balance between simplicity and complexity … and this relates to familiarity, which is just another word for schema (2006, p. 229). If we hear a radically new song enough times, it becomes familiar, and finally encoded in our brain. This will create a scheme in our memory that makes this type of music stand out.

Therefore ,musicians have a tough job trying to consistently create music that will “stand out” and appeal to our brains on the right balance of complexity, simplicity, and familiarity. Although I’m partial to this particular musician, I believe that Andrew Bird is one of the finest artist to strike this balance. His music was once described as “R. Kelly for the ivy league crowd” because of his growing legions of bespectacled, self professed geeks who attend his concerts and read books between breaks. However, his music is a masterful blend of chamber, folk, pop, rock, Celtic, jazz, and ethnic music – intertwined with the simplicities of whistling. Bird’s unnatural whistling almost sounds like another instrument and evokes memories of the simple art of whistling a favorite tune. But there is also the complexity of his lyrics sprinkled with words worthy of Scrabble high scores and SAT vocabulary study guides. Bird has confessed that the sound of the word (and rhyming potential) is more important to him then the definition:

"Bird's lyrics often feature archaic language — words such as radiolarian, plecostomus, dermestids, coprophagia — which he chooses mainly for their sound, but not at the expense of their meaning. When selecting words for lyrics, Bird says, he's more interested in feel than in exact, specific definitions."
From NPR article -- Andrew Bird: Words as Instruments

The most appealing aspect of Andrew Bird’s music is that his live performances are never the same. He plays guitar, violin, sings, xylophone, whistles, and loops like a madman onstage. Every song is played differently, with new twists, new instruments, extended, re-looped, and maybe involving the audience. At an Andrew Bird concert you are guaranteed some of the familiar with the excitement of something new and tantalizing to keep you interested.

This type of experience leaves the listener with positive memories. However, sometimes artists will disturb your well-tagged schema. Levitin reports that musical preferences are greatly influenced by experience. For instance, I performed classical ballet for several years and I despised those torturous pointe shoes, confining costumes, and unnatural dance movements. Now, if I ever hear a piece of classical music that I performed or rehearsed to then I actually have phantom pains in my feet and bones. On the other hand, I once performed an amazing show to Janis Joplin’s music about the power of being a woman. Whenever I hear I music today, I get all pumped up like I can heal the world.

In current events, hip hop artist Rihanna was recently beaten my her boyfriend Chris Brown. Whether this is part of the celebrity rumor mill or confirmed truth – it is nonetheless disturbing. Therefore, several radio stations have taken Brown’s music off their playlist and refuse to play him because of his violent behavior. Many will not endorse an artist that evokes negative emotions. Many critics think this is ridiculous. Yet, after reading Levitin’s research, it’s apparent that our musical preferences are strongly influenced by experience and memory. For many, Chris Brown and his music are now tagged with “abuse” and “violence.” Definitely not a selling point!

Week 5: Music Cognition

“Understanding why we like music and what draws us to it is a window on the essence of human nature” (Levitin, 2006)

Appropriately enough, I watched the movie August Rush this week. It has a sappy, predictable plot but the young star in the movie, August Rush, is an absolute music prodigy! Both of August’s parents are professional musicians – his mother a famous cellist, and father a singer/guitarist of a rock band. August is brought up in an orphanage with no knowledge of his parents and his parents don’t know about him. However, he hears music all around him – in nature, in machines, in the sky – and believes that it is his parents communicating with him. This leads August to run away, at the age of 10, to New York City where he astonishes everyone he meets with his natural ability to pick up an instrument, play it, and compose brilliant music. August is finally adopted in Julliard and his symphony is chosen to be featured in a concert in Central Park. This is where the music unites him and his parents for the first time.

As I watched this movie, several thoughts and questions were racing through my mind regarding the readings. First, are a person’s musical skills determined by nature or nurture? In a workshop, the speaker asked us to consider “who I am and where I am in life.” Then he asked us to determine how much of that was affected by: nature (my genes), nurture (my upbringing), random life events, and free will. Then attribute a percentage to each – almost like a pie chart of yourself. It’s amazing how some people give total credit to themselves (freewill), while others gave more credit to nurture. But what August? Raised without his musical virtuoso parents, he seemed to acquire his musical genius through nature. As if these skills were natural inherent, passed down genetically.

Where and what is music? August hears it in the rustle and bustle of New York City. Playing the guitar to August involves tapping the strings and picking instead of strumming. Like Levitin mentioned, in some cultures the words for sing and dance are the same. As a dancer, I view movement as an extension of the music. When I hear a song, I see a dance. I can feel the ups and downs, the parts that require a soft step, a pirouette, a leap, or breath. So, is music only confined to what comes out of an instrument or a group of harmonized singers? The sounds all around us, right down to the beating of our hearts, are the foundations of music. We are so used to buying something packaged and digital that we tend to forget the natural roots of the songs that surround our existence.

However, was August not only a music prodigy, but also a scientific genius? “What artists and scientists have in common is the ability to live in an open-ended state of interpretation and re-interpretation of the products of our work” (Levitin, 2006). He clearly experimented with everything music instruments he could get his hands on, he tried different sounds on different objects … the more he experimented the more he was able to piece together the music all around him into something he could interpret to everyone else. This is like the universal truth that artists strive for: “not to convey literal truth, but an aspect of universal truth that if successful, will continue to move and to touch people even as contexts, societies, and cultures change.” (p.5) August wanted more than make money playing on street corners, he wanted more than Julliard accolades, or featured symphonies. He wanted to be found. He wanted his music to reach people and convey emotion; he wanted to connect to his parents. In a way, music is a language of connection and every human’s brain is tuned to it some way or another. Thus, music can teach us not only about the brain, but it also has a connection to the heart.

Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes

Another connection to music cognition is the link between babies and music. I found some of the research quite interesting on the website: http://www.greenwych.ca/2001-2.htm . I taught a Baby Story Time for 4 years and recognized the importance of not only music for babies, but also rhyme, rhythm, and repetition. While researching for the best songs and nursery rhymes to use I found heaps of research about the benefits of exposing babies to these particular sounds. These story times provide socialization and stimulation that assist in the development of language and physical skills. However, it was not until I actually saw my babies from story time years later still able to recite fingerplays and sing-a-long to simple songs that I realized it all actually sank into their brains! It takes practice and experimentation, but there are a few tricks that are golden for baby story times, such as: singing nursery rhymes twice (repetition!), using hand gestures and movement, sing many short songs and rhymes, use instruments and experiment with noise (babies love the sound of keys!), let babies and parents take part by using a shaker or jingle bell to keep beat during songs … and no matter how sick YOU get of singing the same songs over and over again … it’s worth it in the long run for the babies!

As evidenced from the movie August Rush and (since I went ahead in the reading) in chapter 8 of This is Your Brain on Music, exposure to music is crucial to children’s cognitive learning process. Whether the rhythm and rhyme is infused in their brains while in the womb or through actual exposure as an infant – many studies have examined the significant effects of music on the brain. There is always the flip side … what about children who are exposed to no music? Where are all the studies on this? It sounds like a torturous existence, but how are the minds of young people who grow up with no music around them? Also, is force-feeding babies classical music, and other auditory stimulations, really make a child genius, or just simply happy? Does it affect intellect or emotion more? These are not only important questions for scientists and researchers, but also for librarians who expose children to music and choose the music for the library's collections.

Interesting Links:

Articles about music and infants:

http://books.google.com/books?id=S6gEU8z6ftcC

Advances in Infancy Research, Volume 12

By Lewis Paeff Lipsitt, Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Harlene Hayne

Published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999

A real life young music prodigy, Jay Greenburg:

http://www.jaygreenbergmusic.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Greenberg

Week 4: Music Technology @ your library

The topic for this week was Music Technology, with several of the websites focusing on recording hardware and software. Initially, this topic was of little interest to me. In my head, I thought, “I am never going to record any type of music of any of this software.” However, this mode of thinking is not conducive to any kind of higher learning! I knew that I might encounter this discrepancy in this class because I am not a musician, but I am a music lover. I listen to music, dance to music, and want to share music with others.

Therefore, if I encounter a topic that seems out of my range in this class, then I try to bring it into focus: what makes this applicable to my life? How can this be used in the library setting? Is this relevant to anything I have experienced? These questions usually lead me to a deeper actualization and then I can cull out of the lesson what I need to gain a better understanding. That is why I adore the structure of this class. It allows for this flexible, self-paced learning that lets the student take control of their own education and get what they want out of the class. It’s quite fulfilling.

I had my epiphany about GarageBand this week. This recording software program by Apple is truly genius and user-friendly. No need to be a professional musician to take advantage of this program. When I first bought my Mac, GarageBand was ignored for over a year until a co-worker of mine formed a band called Catercise. They used no "real" instruments and recorded all these zany songs using only GarageBand. I thought, “I want to try that!” I played around with the software for a while and then got bored. I really had no purpose, just experimenting.

However, that’s one of the perks about GarageBand –for those who can’t read sheet music or sing a tune – this program allows you to experiment! Figure music out using your own ears and musical preferences.


Last semester, I really got to experience the wonders of music recording technology. I recorded a podcast for Instructional Media using GarageBand. It was so easy. I was able to figure out the voice recording software and record a short story within about 30 minutes. We grabbed music from a legal source … this useful website that provides copyright free tunes, at various lengths: http://freeplaymusic.com/. Then, as you integrate this music into your podcast, there are several ways to edit it: adjust volume, fading, length, looping, etc. There’s also a free program called Audacity that allows you to record podcasts in the same way. However, I’m still partial to GarageBand since there is a quality of intuitiveness about Apple software.

Knowing how to produce a podcast is such a useful, progressive skill for librarians. Having this sort of tech savvy knowledge allows you to integrate technology into library programming and stay on top of trends. Using recording software in a program can also segway into information literacy lessons about copyright laws and legal ways to share and produce audio. That’s why I brainstormed the following ways this kind of music technology could be used:

• If you have computers with GarageBand or a similar program – have teens compete with each other to see who can make the best “song” within an hour. Or spread the program out over a few weeks and allow them to develop something quality – have a GarageBand Battle of the Bands, or see if teens/patrons can compose a theme song for the library or teen advisory group using this software. This kind of “music education” would support Dr. Simon’s quote from one of the discussion boards during Week 4: “Music fundamentals can be learned and then applied to any genre imaginable.”
• GarageBand also has a feature that teaches piano lessons and "Artist Lessons" in which a musician will teach you how to play an instrument, such as Colbie Caillat's lesson on guitar teaches the user to play her song "Bubbly."
• Have children, teens, patrons, or librarians record booktalks and post them to the library website. Integrate into this program a lesson on how to use recording software.
• Have a local band come to the library and speak about music recording. They could demonstrate how this software works and then allows patrons to try it out themselves.
• Record story time programs to post on the library website. If there are particular finger plays or rhymes used frequently in children’s story times, then librarians can also record these and create a database of songs organized by names, theme, age, etc. This would be a great resource! One could even record simple songs using the piano using only GarageBand.
• Set up a booth similar to the Story Corps project: http://www.storycorps.net/

Just as librarians are encouraged to embrace new technologies, such as e-books and Web 2.0 applications, we have to be just as open-minded about other emerging technologies. By thinking out of the box, one can integrate music-recording software into the library and unite pop culture trends, information literacy, and technology. Programs like the ones mentioned above promote collaboration, educational technology, lifelong learning, music appreciation, community, and fun!