Why do we like the music we like?

This question has always itched in the back of my mind, “Why do we like the music we like?” My only leads were the assumptions that it was either A. Something we haven’t discovered yet or B. Something very complicated I would never be able to understand. There doesn’t seem to be a complete answer to this question yet, but there is interesting research into this question and some helpful clues into what’s happening inside our brains. This article asks the same question and attempts to get some answers.

The two primary components working in our brains when we listen to music we like are the auditory cortex and the accumbens nucleus. The auditory cortex processes and stores all of the sounds we hear, and each person’s auditory cortex is unique. The accumbens nucleus shows signs of reward and pleasure. The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital ran an experiment to see how these two regions of the brain interact with each other. During the study they found that “the accumbens lights up when it hears new music after the song has been filtered through the auditory cortex”  (ideastations). During this process, the accumbens and auditory cortex communicate and give a reaction to the music – presumably you enjoy it or you do not. This result suggests that the accumbens, the region that plays a role in pleasure, has a hand in our reactions to hearing different music and could have an impact on what kind of music we enjoy listening to.

If this is true, then this could lead to a lot of addition questions: Are we programmed to like certain music? Could other things impact our interest in music, such as culture and context? Perhaps through our life our auditory cortex grows adjusted to hearing certain sounds, and becomes uninterested in other kinds of music. For an example, older people who love classical or jazz, but can’t stand listening to metal music. Does age also make a difference? We can’t quite answer these questions, but it’s some great food for thought.

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2 thoughts on “Why do we like the music we like?

  1. Katerina Economikos

    This is a question that I’ve honestly never asked myself before and now that you bring attention to it, it makes me wonder if we like the music we listen to because we’re “programmed” to or if it has to do with the actual context of the music. I think a big reason people like the music that they like is because they can either relate to what the artist is saying or conveying, or they wish to live in the scene that the musician creates. For example, do people listen to country music because they like the South or wished they lived in the South? A common theme in rap music is money and women. People might enjoy listening to rap music because they want this kind of life that the rappers are bragging about. Heavy metal music tends to sound very aggressive and angry so people might feel as though they are letting out their own frusterations by listening to it.

  2. Marie Terese Fox

    I think it has a lot more to do with cultural background and the time period we grow up in, for instance most people have similar tastes as their friends, but is it because we befriend people who like the same music as us? Or because we assimilate to our friends likes to become closer? It probably has something to do with what your generation is listening to, obviously people still like classical music, but as you pointed out, those born in the 50’s hate modern music.

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