The most pleasurable, emotion-evoking music contains unpredictable yet somehow expected chords and riffs that trigger primitive pleasure centers in our brains. This from a German study of over 1000 chords taken from 745 pop songs and presented to nearly 80 subjects. Each chord was computer rated for its uncertainty attributes and by the participants for its pleasurability. Subjective pleasure rose with unpredictability, and functional MRI imaging confirmed that deviation from the expected proved most capable of triggering the brain’s pleasure, reward, and memory centers.
The investigators speculate that pleasurably-unpredictable may be a winning combination for all art forms. In fact, we have known for a long time that “variety is the spice of life.”
Vincent K.M. Cheung, Peter M.C. Harrison, Lars Meyer, Marcus T. Pearce, John-Dylan Haynes, Stefan Koelsch. Uncertainty and Surprise Jointly Predict Musical Pleasure and Amygdala, Hippocampus, and Auditory Cortex Activity. Current Biology, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.09.067
#Pleasure #music #chords #riffs #memorablesong
Pleasure, music, chords, riffs, memorablesong
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