menu Home chevron_right
PHILOSOPHY

How music spreads, explained in 5 minutes | Michael Spitzer

92.9 The Torch | March 25, 2025



Expert Michael Spitzer explains how culture can “tune” your musical taste.

Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Up next, Music’s power over your brain, explained ► https://youtu.be/wAafVviGxhk

Do humans have something like an instinct for music? The musicologist Michael Spitzer thinks so. As he points out, every person is born with an innate ability to recognize rhythm, beat in time to it, and to recognize and recall melody.

Music-related abilities may be universal, but musical preferences and styles can differ greatly from culture to culture.

In this Big Think video, Spitzer explores why cultures interpret music differently, and also whether the internet will have a homogenizing effect on music.

0:00 The musical instinct
1:13 How music is colonized and counter-colonized
3:58 Why music will never homogenize

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/great-question/how-music-spreads

———————————————————————————-

About Michael Spitzer:
Michael Spitzer is the author of The Musical Human and professor of music at the University of Liverpool, where he leads the department’s work on classical music. A music theorist and musicologist, he is an authority on Beethoven, with interests in aesthetics and critical theory, cognitive metaphor, and music and affect. He organized the International Conferences on Music and Emotion and the International Conference on Analyzing Popular Music and currently chairs the editorial board of Music Analysis Journal.

———————————————————————————-

Read more of our stories on music:
10 of the greatest classical composers alive today
https://bigthink.com/high-culture/best-living-classical-composers/
Here’s what your music preferences reveal about your personality
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/music-personality/
10 of the greatest classical composers of all time
https://bigthink.com/high-culture/classical-music-composer-ranking/

———————————————————————————-

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™
► Big Think
The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.
► Big Think+
Make your business smarter, faster: https://bigthink.com/plus/

———————————————————————————-

Want more Big Think?
► Daily editorial features: https://bigthink.com/popular/
► Get the best of Big Think right to your inbox: https://bigthink.com/st/newsletter
► Facebook: https://bigth.ink/facebook
► Instagram: https://bigth.ink/Instagram
► Twitter: https://bigth.ink/twitter

Written by 92.9 The Torch

Comments

This post currently has no comments.

Comments are closed.




This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play