Music fools the brain into thinking it's speech
It's quite possible that our love of music was simply an accident. We originally evolved emotions to help us navigate dangerous worlds (fear) and social situations (joy). And somehow, the tones and beats of musical composition activate similar brain areas. Typically, our brains release dopamine during behavior that's essential to survival (sex or eating). This makes sense — it's an adaptation that encourages us to do more of these behaviors. But music is not essential in the same way. Presumably, we evolved to recognize patterns because it's an essential skill for survival. Does a rustling in the trees mean a dangerous animal is about to attack? Does the smell of smoke mean I should run, because a fire may be coming my way? Music is a pattern. As we listen, we're constantly anticipating what melodies, harmonies, and rhythms may come next. That's why we typically don't like styles of music we're not familiar with. When we're unfamiliar with a style of music, we don't have a basis to predict its patterns. (jazz as one music style that many unacquainted have trouble latching onto). When we can't predict musical patterns, we get bored. We learn through our cultures what sounds constitute music. The rest is random noise.
These explanations may describe why we feel joy from music, but don't explain the whole other range of emotions music can produce. When we hear a piece of music, its rhythm latches onto us in a process called entrainment. If the music is fast- paced, our heartbeats and breathing patterns will accelerate to match the beat. That arousal may then be interpreted by our brains as excitement. Research has found that the more pleasant-sounding the music, the greater the level of entrainment. "It makes sense that our brains are really good at picking up emotions in speech," the French Institute of Science's Aucouturier says. It's essential to understand if those around us are happy, sad, angry, or scared. Much of that information is contained in the tone of a person's speech. Higher-pitched voices sound happier. More warbled voices are scared. Music may then be an exaggerated version of speech. Just as higher-pitched and speedier voices connote excitement, so do higher-pitched and speedier selections of music. And because we tend to mirror the emotions we hear in others, if the music is mimicking happy speech, then the listener will become happy too.
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