From: Ava 2/11/99 16:52:40 Subject: Why do people sing? post id: 4332 Stupid question, but I had noticed that in every single culture, there's bound to be some music involve. People make music, they sing, they dance...why? IS there an internal subconcious, instinct to go around making noises and swinging your body around? From: steve(primus) 2/11/99 16:57:04 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4334 they enjoy it, it's fun. They can do it so they do do it. Very straightlaced societies cut out singing and dancing thinking it lascivious, which it probably is too. People like enjoying themselves, singing and dancing are two ways to do just that - and they might lead to further, different enjoyments. From: Janet 2/11/99 17:04:58 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4343 probably a whole mob of generalisations, err, but.....um...... Historically our societal binds have prompted us to communicate......as social beings we make music for comfort, to soothe, to communicate, to publicise, entertain (Brittany Spears exempted) promote, story tell, record moments and on and on. Perhaps cultures regardless of who or where......are compelled to do these things. A stab in the dark??????? From: Grant¹ 2/11/99 19:15:36 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4392 I take it you don't find Brittany bouncing around entertaining? (NB- only with the sound muted otherwise it is painful) From: janet 2/11/99 19:44:05 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4398 Hi Grant I gnash my teeth at her whenever I see her on RAGE. Evidently I've got too much time on my hands Cheers Janet (both bouncing & entertaining) Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr From: Mick 2/11/99 22:14:56 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4442 they enjoy it, it's fun. Yeah, Steve, but why is it fun? Why did a species arise that finds music fun? Could it possibly be a genetic property? Alternatively, could a kind of "social evolution" be at play, such that those groups of people whose culture didn't support music tended to disband? We sure are a strange bunch of metazoans. From: Mick 2/11/99 23:30:00 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4467 As a semi professional singer i do have a couple of theories. 1- Members of the opposite sex (gender?) tend to find those who can sing quite interesting, so it may be no more exotic than a mating call. (Don't ask me why mating calls work!) 2- It may be an evolved, stylised form of story telling 3- It may also have something to do with the way our minds work. I've always found it amazing that the musical scales we use (ie. the way musical octaves are spaced out across the audible spectrum, and the spacing of the notes within) can't be messed with, without making the music sound unpleasant. 4- Possibly none or all of the above. From: sera 2/11/99 23:41:37 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4470 even though most western people find notes that do not confrom to the traditional major/minor scales sound bad or wrong, there are many other cultures with completely different systems that sound pretty bad to western tastes an example is the pentatonic scales used in (I think - it's been a while) Japanese music (the pentatonic scale involves all the black keys on a piano) strangely enough, though, windchimes are usually made so that each tube makes a different note of a pentatonic scale because the random sounding of the tubes is therefore not the dissonance you would get from ones tuned to a traditional melodic or harmonic scale maybe it's a case of expecting it to be bad, in which case it sounds alright, or expecting it to sound good in which case you are disappointed (as an aside: while all the notes we hear are made up of various harmonics that follow a pattern - whatever it is that I can't remember - if something is tuned to play the frequencies predicted by the pattern, it sounds slightly off key) From: steve(primus) 2/11/99 23:46:33 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4473 2- It may be an evolved, stylised form of story telling Certainly rhymes and chants aid memory. before writing, stories were handed down from one storyteller to the next. A classic example is the start of the book of Genesis. Read it again, this time listen to the sound of the words. Ok, you will probably be reading it in English so it will lose something in the translation, but see how often the line "God saw what he had done and it was good" comes up. It's like a chorus. Music varies enormously aross the planet with different scales etc. What sounds beautiful to one culture sounds discordant to another. As far as I know, all cultures have some form of music making and dance. It is often tied into religion and many of the movements in the dance are taken from the movements of animals, birds and plants. The simplest musical instruments are percussion instruments and many societies have only those. In Australia, for instance, the didgeridoo was not used by the desert people but they all made rhythmic music with carved wood. There are probably many reasons for singing and dancing but ritual has to be high on the list. From: Di 3/11/99 0:43:21 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4479 It certainly is an interesting cultural trait. There was a time when no hominids made permanent tools. There must have been some first hominid who did this. (This is not to ignore the possibility that the skill arose independently in a number of places, or that it vanished and reappeared a number of times.) The skill was passed on, and there have certainly been no hominids without tools for a very long time. There are no humans without song, stories, and some form of visual art. Did song arise at the same time as speech? We'll never know. Did it begin with the imitation of birds? Why immitate birds? I have come across the idea that we like rhythm because it reminds us of our mother's heartbeat which we heard in the womb. Sounds like the merest speculation, but it is just possible we will find out about that during our lifetimes: there may be infants "brought to term" ex utero. If they like music, it must be something else. From: Di 3/11/99 1:26:43 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4485 I sing to drown out the sound of the pumps. Does that count? From: Andy 3/11/99 3:39:53 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4491 Singing and music are attractive to the ear. Some people like the sounds of someone talking but more generally the sound of someone singing in tune can mesmerise a population. Its nothing more than purely aesthetic so we do it. From: helen 3/11/99 9:58:48 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4507 some speculations - same reason we talk and write - communication; as Steve said, music is a huge memory aid, and it's much easier to pass on cultural stories (myths and legends) if there's some melody and rhythm (and a rhyme or two?) involved. This suggests a double advantage - the songs may "preserve" themselves by virtue of being easier to remember (memes!), and cultures which use them may remain cohesive longer by virtue of preserving their own history better. sense of belonging, familiarity in your social group; people with the capacity for music, who liked to sing and hear others singing may have bonded more closely with their social groups, as Daryn suggested. Music could be part of an identification process, a kind of shortcut signal that you're among friends & family, or at least people similar to them, and therefore safe. music can be a powerful emotional trigger: it might be deliberately or semi-deliberately used to cause positive emotions (which tend to help us integrate and store recently acquired information, and to think broadly and creatively) or negative emotions (which might psych us up to attack the neighbouring village). As a part of ritual, as Steve said, it might help focus our thoughts on what we're trying to achieve, like ensuring the autumn harvest or warding off the evil eye. By believing we've performed the prayer or spell correctly, we feel we have more control over our tricky environment (and may actually do sensible things like guard the crop from thieves, as well). singing may be a part of rehearsing important tasks, especially where there's also dance involved - groups which spent time rehearsing a hunt or a big nomadic move may have had better luck performing the task itself. Either way it's nice and aerobic when done well, so might have helped with physical fitness. I liked the mating signal suggestion - maybe a healthy singing voice could be taken as evidence of general physical health (lung capacity, throat clear of infection, etc.). I think that's probably stretching it a bit, though :-) :-)helen From: Em 3/11/99 16:03:51 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 4630 I dimly recall something about why people like to dance or move to 'hip hop' or a rock beat (strong bass & treble) and it had something to do with a response to the sounds we hear by our eardrum and a primal movement response to the beat. However, I can mainly recall hearing the hypothesis and saying "oh cool!" and promptly forgetting it...Can anyone else remember this? I sing or whistle in the lab when there's no-one around and no radio, because otherwise it gets lonely. And it sounds slightly better than the hmm of machines.. Cheers Em From: lozza 6/11/99 15:37:21 Subject: re: Why do people sing? post id: 5283 as a song writer, i have asked myself the same question. i have come up whith a few theories, i hope they help. *some people may sing to express their feelings and emotions when nobody else will listen to them. *it can be an escape for some people. by singing a song about a fantasy or other person they can leave the real world and become somebody that they're not. *it may be that people sing purely for enjoyment and fun. *humans are known to get bored very easily, maybe they just got bored of talking all the time and decided to sing. (it's not very likely though) *many animals used a mating call to attract the opposite sex. birds are thought to sing (whistle) when they are happy. maybe singing is the animal inside of us or the longing to be as beautiful as the sing birds. i hope these theories are useful to you. yours musically lozza. This forum is un-moderated. 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