Is Music Auditory Cheesecake or Wallpaper?

I know, strange title, eh? It refers to the past and possibly present status of music in society.  Let’s start with the past. 

Flutes made from bird bones are the earliest artifacts of home sapiens (read the blog In pursuit of ancient flutes). And yet, Steven Pinker, brilliant linguistic and author has stated that music is unnecessary to the human condition. He likened it to cheesecake. We don’t need cheesecake to survive but we have evolved to love the fats and sugars. We could live without cheesecake for sure, but music? really?!? 

The current research in neuroscience has led me to understand that music was key to priming the brain to perceive and then produce sounds, namely speech and language. Music helped to develop our cognition (to problem solve how to make flutes out of bird leg bones and ivory, how to focus long enough to experiment and then perfect long patterns of music) and socialization (our brains enlarged as our communities developed to help us navigate the complexities of social interaction). Musicians living in the caves where the flutes were found in southern Germany would have been the first rock stars- attracting people to join the cave, to be affiliated, to mate, to survive together and to help each other. 

But I do fear that I see a shift in modern life. When I go to the gym, I have noticed that the music bears little or no relationship with the movements we are doing at the barre, the TRX, spin or most any other class. Now I do not think I live in a community of people with amusia (e.g. tone or beat deaf, in this case beat deaf). It seems that we are saturated in so much music in the modern world that it may no longer be special, notable or as engaging. It’s ubiquitousness may be its undoing. It just takes us auditory space and hence the concern that music is evolving to a place of being auditory wallpaper. 

In addition to there being little to no connection between movement and music, the instructors leave their choices up to other Spotify subscribers. They do not make their own playlists or choices. And the music that I hear has no real musicians- mostly producers and electronic designers. Even the vocalists are not truly real as they can now pitch correct and sung note. Where is the value of the craft of studying and making music? Where is the awareness that music, specifically rhythm, ideally drives and optimizes movement (check out this film and see what I mean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBEneHzlJOg&t=5s). 

Music may very well have helped us survive our past and the uncomfortable question is- will it be an integral part to our future? Will it continue to grab our attention and sustain it, will it still have the capacity to move us to tears, will it still facilitate movement of individuals and groups, will it still be relevant or an artifact of our evolution? 

Advocate for good music used for the right reasons at your gym.