What does traditional music around the world have in common?

Summary

A global study involving over a dozen researchers and countless undergraduates examined the universality of music across societies. Their findings suggest that over 99% of societies have music. The team identified three key dimensions in songs: formality, arousal, and religiosity. They analyzed four song categories—lullabies, dance songs, love songs, and healing songs—and discovered clear patterns, with dance songs being formal and arousing, and lullabies being informal and calming. The researchers also found that melodic and rhythmic complexity varied, but didn’t distinguish between song categories. The study opens doors for exploring other cultural commonalities, like storytelling and visual art.

Takeaways

• 😀 Music is often considered the 'universal language of mankind' because it can reflect and influence emotions across cultures.
• 😀 Over 99% of societies worldwide have music, suggesting that music is indeed a universal feature of human culture.
• 😀 Researchers analyzed song descriptions and performances from 60 different societies, ranging from the Pawnee of North America to the Saami of Scandinavia.
• 😀 Three dimensions were found to account for much of the variability in songs: formality, arousal, and religiosity.
• 😀 Formality in songs correlates with large audiences, use of instruments, and ceremonial events, while informal songs tend to have smaller, more intimate audiences.
• 😀 Arousal refers to how lively or calming a song is, with dance songs being high in arousal and lullabies being low.
• 😀 Religiosity in songs relates to their spiritual context, with songs used in ceremonies and funerals scoring high in religiosity.
• 😀 The four categories of music studied (lullabies, dance songs, love songs, and healing songs) showed clear trends across all societies.
• 😀 Dance music tends to be formal, arousing, and non-religious, while lullabies are informal and calming with little religious context.
• 😀 Healing songs scored high across all dimensions (formality, arousal, and religiosity), while love songs scored low in all dimensions.
• 😀 Researchers also examined the acoustic features of songs, such as tempo and rhythm, finding that melodic and rhythmic complexity explained a quarter of the variability in songs.

Q & A

What was the main finding of the researchers studying the universality of music?

The main finding was that music is indeed universal, as more than 99% of societies around the world have some form of music, according to statistical modeling.

What was the purpose of the research conducted by the team of researchers?

The research aimed to compile and annotate descriptions and recordings of musical performances from around the world to understand the universal nature of music and to identify common patterns across cultures.

Which three dimensions accounted for more than a quarter of the variability in songs?

The three dimensions were formality (how formal or informal the song was), arousal (how much the song stimulated its listeners), and religiosity (how religious the song was).

How did the formality of a song influence its characteristics?

Songs with high formality had large audiences, often involved ceremonial events, and usually had adult-only audiences. Informal songs, on the other hand, were associated with smaller audiences, including children, or no audience at all.

How did arousal affect the types of songs in the study?

Songs that were high in arousal were associated with lively events, such as dancing, while songs with low arousal were calmer, like lullabies or songs sung to a baby.

What role did religiosity play in the categorization of songs?

Religious songs were typically associated with ceremonial events, such as funerals or rituals, and were high in religiosity. Non-religious songs scored low in religiosity, such as songs sung for personal or social purposes.

What trends did the researchers find in the four categories of songs they studied?

The researchers found that dance songs were formal, highly arousing, and low in religiosity; lullabies were informal and low in arousal; healing songs were high in all three dimensions; and love songs were low in all three dimensions.

What did the researchers find when analyzing the acoustic features of songs?

The researchers found that melodic complexity and rhythmic complexity were two factors that explained a quarter of the variability in songs. Dance songs were found to be more rhythmic, while lullabies had less rhythmic complexity.

Could the researchers identify the four song categories based only on melodic or rhythmic complexity?

No, the researchers found that while there were differences in melodic and rhythmic complexity, the four categories of songs could not be distinguished solely by these features.

What potential applications could the database of song descriptions have for future research?

The researchers suggest that their database could fuel future studies on music universals and be applied to analyze patterns in other fields, such as storytelling and visual art.