Captain Bacardi
Well-Known Member
Here's an interesting little story about a study of Western music introduced to remote African tribes:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencea...-a-hit---even-with-remote-African-tribes.html
Western music is a hit – even with remote African tribes
Music really is universal, scientists find after discovering African tribes can recognise emotions in Western music.
A selection of instrumental Western music including Herb Alpert (above) was played to them Photo: GETTY
Researchers found that the remote community - that had never heard Western music before - recognised happiness, sadness and fear when played jazz, classical and rock'n'roll music.
The results show that the expression of those three basic emotions in music can be universally recognised, the researchers said.
"These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in global music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly emphasise the role of emotional expression in their music," said Dr Thomas Fritz of the Max-Planck-Institute, who led the study.
Dr Fritz enlisted members of the Mafa, one of about 250 ethnic groups in Cameroon based in the extreme north of the country's Mandara mountain ranges.
He played them a selection of instrumental Western music from classical (Bach) to Jazz (Herb Alpert) to rock'n'roll (American surf band the Ventures) and asked them to identify the emotion using cards with pictures of happy, sad, or scared faces.
His study, published in Current Biology, discovered they matched those picked by Western audiences.
"Both Mafa and Western listeners showed an ability to recognise the three basic emotional expressions tested in this study from Western music," the researchers said.
"This indicates that these emotional expressions conveyed by the Western musical excerpts can be universally recognised."
Capt. Bacardi
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sciencea...-a-hit---even-with-remote-African-tribes.html
Western music is a hit – even with remote African tribes
Music really is universal, scientists find after discovering African tribes can recognise emotions in Western music.
A selection of instrumental Western music including Herb Alpert (above) was played to them Photo: GETTY
Researchers found that the remote community - that had never heard Western music before - recognised happiness, sadness and fear when played jazz, classical and rock'n'roll music.
The results show that the expression of those three basic emotions in music can be universally recognised, the researchers said.
"These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in global music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly emphasise the role of emotional expression in their music," said Dr Thomas Fritz of the Max-Planck-Institute, who led the study.
Dr Fritz enlisted members of the Mafa, one of about 250 ethnic groups in Cameroon based in the extreme north of the country's Mandara mountain ranges.
He played them a selection of instrumental Western music from classical (Bach) to Jazz (Herb Alpert) to rock'n'roll (American surf band the Ventures) and asked them to identify the emotion using cards with pictures of happy, sad, or scared faces.
His study, published in Current Biology, discovered they matched those picked by Western audiences.
"Both Mafa and Western listeners showed an ability to recognise the three basic emotional expressions tested in this study from Western music," the researchers said.
"This indicates that these emotional expressions conveyed by the Western musical excerpts can be universally recognised."
Capt. Bacardi
