Language of music may really be universal

Na­tive Af­ri­cans who have nev­er lis­tened to the ra­dio be­fore can none­the­less pick up on hap­py, sad, and fear­ful emo­tions in West­ern mu­sic, ac­cord­ing to a new re­port. The re­sult shows that the ex­pres­sion of those three bas­ic emo­tions in mu­sic can be un­iver­sally rec­og­nized, 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 em­pha­size the role of emo­tion­al ex­pres­sion in their mu­sic,” said Thom­as Fritz of the Max Planck Institute for Hu­man Cog­ni­tive and Brain Sci­ences in Leip­zig, Ger­many.The study ap­peared in the March 19 on­line is­sue of the re­search jour­nal Cur­rent Bi­ol­o­gy.

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