Have you ever heard a song that just instantly clicked? A song that makes you go “Oh My God THIS IS MY JAM!!” or a song that reminds you of a place that you haven’t even been to or given a sense of nostalgia to the unknown? Well I got something that’ll blow your mind as to why music does this to people.
To truly understand why music does this, we are going to need to get a deeper dive into the human brain, more specifically the limbic system. This part of the brain has all the information we need to understand why music makes us understand it deeply.
The limbic system holds all of our emotions and controls all of our memories as well. This system lights up when we hear music. It flashes over and over and that is why we tend to be very fond of such a song, for example I’ve been listening to a song called “Poison by Bell DeVoe” and it keeps giving me that sense of being in that era of music where people break it down on a cardboard mat. It doesn’t make sense but it gave me nostalgia for something that has never happened.
Dopamine is released and it gives us a pretty amazing feeling of pleasure when such a sensation hits, and it doesn’t imply happy go lucky songs with great rhythm either, it goes for all genres of music! Even the sad ones! Looking at you Adele!
So why do we connect to music so much? It’s the memories that we connect to such songs that create that connection. We listen to sad songs when something doesn’t go our way or why we listen to happy songs when life just feels amazing. Even when we feel proud of ourselves for achieving something there is a song that expresses that emotion such as “We Are The Champions by Queen”. Emotions are what makes us connect these songs to our lives and that is why we hold them deeply. It’s what keeps us from being human and allows us to feel rather than just not having support whatsoever. It’s that major boost of help that gets us through those tough, happy and sad times. That’s why music is important or even art in that matter. That's why we connect it so deeply to our hearts. It’s Important!
So when you hear something that just CLICKS. Now you know why and you can have a deeper understanding as to why music is important for the world around us. Thank You.