Familiarity
doesn't rule out that people don't like different kinds of genres, it
is simply the idea that genres work because people find themselves in
an emotional attachment to that kind of music, be able to identify it
easier, and will therefore purchase more of it. In a study published
on the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of
Health, written by Carlos Silva Pereira (also known as CSP) and
several others, it states that the positive, or negative responses to
music are due to familiarity, also known as the mere
exposure effect.
In an
attempt to figure out how the brain reacts to familiar and unfamiliar
music, CSP used positron
emission
tomography, also known as PET-scans, to find activity within the
brain. It was found that when using a synthesizer to judge the
familiarity within melodies, the following areas were shown to have
activity:
- anterior portion of bilateral temporal lobes – these are often found to process sensory input such as emotional association. They also hold the primary auditory cortex which processes information into something meaningful, which is one of the reasons why music actually sounds like something.
- bilateral cingulate gyri, left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)
- middle portion of the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) – these two play a part in the comprehension aspect. They are more responsible for language processing, which can also happen whilst listening to music due to lyrics.
- posterior portion of superior temporal gyri – this part of the brain is also involved in auditory processing. Some areas of this are specialised for processing different combinations of frequencies, and others are specialised to process changes in amplitude or frequency. This is partially why we recognise when a piece of music is different.
- anterior and posterior portion of medial frontal lobes – this area of the brain is actually responsible for determining similarities and differences between things and events.
All
the different areas which were shown to light up recognise the piece
of music and process it, and process whether they find the soundtrack
to be familiar or unfamiliar due to many different components. Both
familiar and unfamiliar tunes had affected emotional stimuli, but it
didn't show whether the candidates liked or disliked the type of
music. However, what was noticed in the study is that the most
emotion-related brain activity happened due to familiar music. The
emotional judgment for a familiar piece of music was shorter than
that for an unfamiliar piece which means it is easier for a person to
feel a certain way about certain types of music that they know.
Therefore it is more likely for a person to react positively,
emotionally, to a piece that they are acquainted with.
By
using music that sounds the same the music industry is able to mass
produce music that they know people will like; which could be a
reason why the 4 Chords I, V, vi, and IV make a re-appearance in a
lot of popular music pieces. The reason why people like this type of
music is because the note progression sounds right. Some chords put
together sound wrong, negative, or dark, and simply do not fit into
most pieces of music.
However, when mass producing music, it could discourage artists who work in the industry because they are forced to do things over and over again. It is common that artists and band have people who write songs for them, not because they cannot do it, but because the record labels know exactly what will make an audience feel emotionally attached to a song and therefore purchase it.
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