THE LANGUAGE OF MUSIC

Music is attached to nearly every aspect of our lives. We listen to music when we’re driving, when we’re on the bus, when we’re watching a movie, and even when we’re spending time with our loved ones. If music is just “sound,” why is it found everywhere we go? 

The simple explanation would be that we like to keep things important to us close by, explaining why we keep music so near. The result is that we find music everywhere. But this surface-level explanation raises another important consideration: why? How has music evolved into such a central part of our societies, cultures, and lifestyles? The exact purpose of music has perplexed people for centuries. Greek philosopher, Aristotle, noted that “it is not easy to determine the nature of music or why anyone should have a knowledge of it.”

Despite the apparent complexity surrounding why music exists, it serves several purposes. Music can cause numerous changes in the brain, such as increasing neuroplasticity, enhancing memory and attention, and effecting emotional states such as by alleviating stress. A broader implication of music is its ability to boost group cohesion. This suggests that music plays a role in connecting individuals and tying groups together. Some researchers even argue that music has enabled social bonding to a greater extent than other metrics.  

We could end our discussion here, because now we’ve established that music plays many roles in our lives. But I am finding this explanation lackluster and overly surface-level. I wonder if there could be more to take away from this topic, rather than simply, “X, Y, and Z” are the roles music plays in our lives. There has to be more. 

I’d like to explore what the language of music is. Is it a language at all? A quick Google search tells me that language is “the principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture.” So, a language must be 1) a method of human communication, 2) consist of words, and 3) be conveyed verbally, by writing, or by body language. This means that technically, music is a language, because it clearly meets those three criteria.  

But that’s pretty obvious, just looking at the definition. It feels too superficial to reduce music to the level of a language, because it’s not what you’d imagine when you think of language. There’s something that sets it apart, and I think that the fundamental difference between music and other languages is that you don’t need to “learn” music in the sense that you’d “learn a language.”

A thought that came to me just as I was writing this, which may have occurred to you as well, is “what about musical instruments? Wouldn’t you have to learn those?” It’s true that if you pick up a violin for the first time, you may not necessarily know how to play it. However, the exception with music is that you can still communicate through music without knowing how to play an instrument. Music doesn’t have a strict set of rules you need to follow in order to effectively communicate in a way that makes sense. Thus, in my opinion, music forms its own category from the parent category of language. 

To circle back to the question posed at the beginning of the article— why is music found everywhere we go?— I think the answer lies in how prevalent music is in our daily lives; it is a language, and thus, it is an integral, important, and everlasting aspect of our lives.  

• emotion
• lifestyle
• memory
• music