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Getting You Up, Getting You Down: How Music Works

Posted at 7:16 AM on August 24, 2006 by Hans Eisenbeis

We noticed a lot of chatter on the web yesterday about this article. It seems that a neuroscience professor at McGill University has been studying the effects of rock music on the brain. Daniel Levitin, who in a former lifetime was a knob-twiddling producer working with the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Grateful Dead, has found that:

"Music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as a lot of other pleasurable activities like orgasms or eating chocolate -- or if you're a gambler winning a bet or using drugs if you're a drug user. Serotonin and dopamine are both involved."
Not only that, but here's where it starts to get, y'know, a little racy:
"(Research has shown that) if women could choose who they'd like to be impregnated by, they'd choose a rock star. There's something about the rock star's genes that is signaling creativity, flexibility of thinking, flexibility of mind and body, an ability to express and process emotions -- not to mention that (musical talent) signals that if you can waste your time on something that has no immediate impact on food-gathering and shelter, you’ve got your food-gathering and shelter taken care of."
Well, that certainly explains the groupie phenomena, but we wonder why most of thetickets are still overwhelmingly bought by boys.

Just so, isn't it gratifying to know that academia is hard at work confirming everything we already know and hold dear about rock 'n' roll? Study says rock music makes you high and horny. Duh!

August 2006
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