MUSICAL FINGERPRINTS

Based on Professor David Hargreaves' talk at TEDxWarwick 2011

Do you have a song that can lift your mood? Or a song that reminds you of a certain event? Music has always been known for its power to alter our emotions and impact our memories, but why is this? Professor David Hargreaves, psychologist and keen musician, explains in his TEDxWarwick talk that developments in music psychology have begun to unlock the reasons and patterns behind our particular music tastes.

“Music is incredibly powerful stuff” says Professor David Hargreaves. “It has very strong effects on our lives: we all have views about our likes and dislikes. I only remember one person who said they didn’t like music.”

In his enlightening TEDxWarwick talk, Professor David Hargreaves, a psychologist by training and also a jazz pianist and church organist, explained how the growing discipline of music psychology is unlocking the patterns and reasons behind our music tastes and how we can apply the science in practical ways.

Music has been an integral part of our lives ever since the evolution of modern humans. For example, in 2009 a 35,000 year-old Stone Age flute made out of bird bone was found in Germany. Music is a means of communication, particularly of conveying emotions, and has played a part in evolutionary psychology. Recent research studying the pattern of communication between parents and babies found that infants build up vocalisation patterns through co-ordinated interaction with sounds, such as gurgles. “The basic model of communication between babies and caregivers”, says Hargreaves, “follows a musical pattern from birth onwards”. This is known as communicative musicality.

The power ballad by singer Michael Bolton, 'When I’m back on my feet again', pulled him through and stopped him from killing himself.

Music can have great power over our emotions. An example Hargreaves gave was of a former Royal Navy sailor, with two failed marriages, who had his £20,000 payout stolen by a conman. The power ballad by singer Michael Bolton, 'When I’m back on my feet again', pulled him through and stopped him from killing himself. There are, according to Hargreaves’ research, lots of evidence of that kind of phenomenon.

In Sweden a study showed that lots of people credited the playing of their favourite piece of music in hospital with helping them on the road to recovery. Music can have both physical and psychological effects, making our hearts race; giving us goose bumps; and bringing us happiness through our own personal associations with that particular piece or genre. It’s cheaper to prescribe music on the NHS rather than drugs to promote wellbeing. The right kind of music can lower stress (although the wrong kind can increase it) and lower stress gives rise to improved immune system functioning, making us less susceptible to diseases.

There is growing evidence about how the extent of which we are in contact with music in everyday life. The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs has enjoyed such longevity, according to Hargreaves, due to the universal human tendency for us to project our interests, personal histories and desires on to pieces of music.

A 2004 study Hargreaves worked on, measuring the percentage of participants’ everyday lives that involved music, showed that 39 per cent of people, when asked randomly throughout the day, were involved in an activity that included music. A similar project with 30 three-year-olds showed that the figure rose to 81 per cent for them. Whether music was on the television, radio, part of their toys or their interaction with their caregivers, music played a major point in their everyday lives. The earlier we are exposed to musical influences the stronger their effects are.

Thirteen and fourteen-year-olds spend on average three to four hours a day listening to music, mostly pop. This is far more time than they spend on any other leisure activity. Music is a part of our identities. For a teenager their preferred musical genre can lead researchers to predict the clothes they wear, who their friends are, their leisure activities and what they like to eat and drink.

Music psychology is moving towards the idea of ‘musical fingerprints’. There are three kinds of associations:

1. Musical networks – we perceive the world of music in different ways according to our particular interests and preferred genres.

2. Cultural networks – the way we react to music will depend on the situation we are in. The ‘musical fit’ concept shows that certain music fits certain situations. Music played during an aerobics class will be very different from that played in an antique furniture store. Rather than Britney Spears or Lady Gaga, the store owner will play Vivaldi or Bach.

3. Personal musical network – we all have a personal inner music library (PIML) which develops throughout our lifetime. We recognise new pieces of music according to our PIMLs.

What’s next in the field of music psychology? In the 1960s the field of psycholinguistics became popular. It looked at how we acquire and use language using a complex symbol system. In the noughties music psychologists are applying this theory towards music. We shall have to wait and see, says Hargreaves, how their research pans out.

David Hargreaves is Professor of Education, Froebel Research Fellow, and Co-Director of the Applied Music Research Centre in the School of Education, and has previously held posts in Schools of Psychology and Education at the Universities of Leicester, Durham and the Open University. He is also Visiting Professor of Research in Music Education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Visiting Professor at the Inter-University Institute of Macau.

He is a Chartered Psychologist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He was Editor of Psychology of Music 1989-96, Chair of the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) 1994-6, and is currently on the editorial boards of 10 journals in psychology, music and education. In recent years he has spoken about his research at conferences and meetings in various countries on five continents. He has appeared on BBC TV and radio as a jazz pianist and composer, and is organist at his local village church. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary D.Phil, Doctor Honoris Causa, by the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts in the University of Gothenburg, Sweden in recognition of his 'most important contribution towards the creation of a research department of music education' in the School of Music and Music Education in that University.

By Penelope Jenkins