The Times: Why music really is a universal language

“Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand,” sang Stevie Wonder in 1976 and now a study backs him up.

Researchers who analysed hundreds of cultures say they have evidence that music is a kind of universal language. Not only does it exist everywhere — it also appears to have an underlying structure that carries meaning between the most distant societies.

They found that songs that serve particular purposes such as love songs or lullabies, share similar features and should therefore transcend cultural boundaries. A lullaby composed in the Scottish Highlands will soothe an infant of the Q’ero Quechua people of the Andes and Samoan love songs will be recognised as romantic by the Blackfoot Indians of North America.

Songs from 60 cultures were scored on how rousing they were, how religious-sounding they were and whether they sounded more ceremonial or intimate. No matter which culture they came from, songs of certain types had similar scores. Dance songs are highly rousing, highly ceremonial and low on religiosity wherever you are. Love songs are intimate, not very rousing and low on religiosity.

The study, published yesterday in the journal Science, suggests that songs are a “product of underlying psychological faculties that make certain kinds of sound feel appropriate to certain social and emotional circumstances”.

The full online article can be found here.