Daniel Levitin on how emotion can be manipulated by music

On the Media “How Music Conveys Emotion”

For those who have read This is Your Brain on Music, this is standard Daniel Levitin stuff. In the context of Adele’s Grammy-winning song “Someone Like You”, Levitin introduces the idea that we want music to “surprise us, but not too much”. We enjoy music that provides unexpected change, and Levitin breaks down the various ways that Adele’s song addresses these needs.

He also talks about the “vocal fry”, that gravelly emotional tone of a voice on the verge of breaking that has the power to manipulate our own emotions. Levitin suggests that some of these unexpected characteristics of the Adele song may eventually become less surprising and therefore less appealing because “our ears have evolved”.

Levitin has a lot of theories on our proximate reactions to music, most of them well-substantiated by clever experimental work. What interests me are the more ultimate questions that emerge from examining Levitin’s proximate observations. Why do we crave novelty in music? Why does a voice on the verge of breaking elicit empathy whereas a more solid voice does not? And by what process are our “ears evolving”? Clearly this last one has to be about the coevolution of biological and cultural factors.