The power of music and its effect on the human mind is a fascinating topic for many, especially neuroscientists, exploring the gateway to the mysteries of the brain. This is a 2009 documentary where we learn, through the journey of Sting, how the brain uses music to shape the human experience. Sting (whose many songs are peppered throughout the documentary, with Message In A Bottle and Every Breath You Take played very early on) undergoes brain scans to learn how music is manifested in his brain. Also featured in the film are candid interviews with Michael Buble (whose performance of For Once In My Life was included) and Wyclef Jean, among others.
Why are certain songs so important to us? Does music make us smarter? Why do we feel like dancing when we hear a beat? (Experiments suggest that the more we respond to a piece of music by moving to it, the more we activate the pleasure circuits of the brain, which in turn stimulate the release of the feel-good hormone. There’s no one piece of music that can affect everyone in exactly the same way.) What have some well-known musicians learned about the power of music in their lives?
The connection between mood and music start early. A gentle rocking motion with soothing sounds makes a baby feel contentment, and flying through the air with happy sounds evokes the emotion of joy and excitement. We need to feel emotions in order to survive. Pleasure is nature’s way of telling us we’ve reached some equilibrium. Music is just one of the ways that the brain experiences pleasure.
Recently, scientists have discovered one great key to unlock inside the brain: music. This documentary examines the physical, psychological and emotional responses to music through a variety of tests, including one on Sting, who agrees to enter an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine to have his brain scanned. We see how Sting responds to various types of music (simple and complex), and what his musical brain reveal about him.
The ties that bind us to the music we love are not only emotional, they can be intellectual too. Music is a puzzle; the brain is a muscle, like puzzles, figuring out what’s good and what other people take as good. Babies love listening to music. Decoding the mysteries of melody, rhythm and pitch is fun for little brains that are hardwired to analyse musical sounds from birth. Every baby is a musical maestro able to anticipate the complicated structure of music and recognise familiar melodies. Playing a musical instrument involves the brain much more than just listening to music. There’s a constellation of things that are not all in one domain. All that brain activity leads to a higher intelligence overall. (Sting learnt to play the lute when he was in his 50s. The activity of the brain reflects taste in music.)
Music has been used by our ancestors to comfort one another, to form social bonds. Music has the power to shape not only our feelings but out actions as well. Humans are the only species that can synchronise their movements to music. This is what creates social bonds.
Creativity is completely human. The characteristics of a popular piece of music include isolate things like melody, harmony, beat, tempo, rhythm, octave, pitch and chord progression. Indian music is rhythmically and incredibly complex and mathmatically very very long (sequences can take place over 20 minutes).
This scientific experiment that shows the brain in the act of creation had a surprised reaction from Sting: when he listens to Bach, whom he loves, (Bach’s Cello Suite No 1 Prelude was played), he hears architecture, like massive chambers and towers and domes; he has a brain that looks like a Martian – a very uncomfortable feeling.
Music is a mystery; it doesn’t end. (Sting’s Fragile and Roxanne are played in the background.)
Goldenager 