Our musical minds

Making and processing music is something unique to human brains, says Dr Sam Mehr. But why are we so attuned to rhythms, melodies and matching tones? Claire and Sam take a deep dive into the universal language of music, and how our minds make sense of it.

Spotify is open on Dr Sam Mehr's work computer. He's halfway through Billie Eilish's new album, which he's enjoying.

"I listen to every Billie Eilish album that comes out. I mean, she's great and it's kind of wild, why she's great to me."

It's one of his side interests, homing in on supremely popular music to figure out the secret sauce of what makes it so well-liked.

But his main research focus is the basic psychology of music - why and how our brains process music.

The psychology of an everyday thing

Think of the space that music occupies in your life. Do you listen daily? On your commute? To get pumped up in the gym? Do you hear it all around - radios, cafés, the supermarket, TikTok videos? Maybe you sing or play an instrument. But have you ever stopped to wonder... why?

"No species other than humans have something like music. Other species have vocalisations that might sound a bit like music, but they're very, very different in their functions and in their design than the human music faculty is," says Sam.

"Just the fact that we're doing it in the first place is like, wait a minute, what's that about?"

Based now at the University of Auckland, Sam's own musical background paved the way for what he researches. He played piano from a young age, saxophone at school and then went to a music conservatory to study music education at third level. It was while running classes for very young kids with their parents that he started to ponder about the psychology behind it all.

Is it a universal language?

While a highly produced Billie Eilish album might be an entertaining listen, when it comes to answering the fundamental psychological questions about how humans interact with music, Sam focuses on more basic forms of music that have been around for much longer.

Something he and collaborators have been working on for over a decade now is the Natural History of Song project - a collection of vocal music from all around the world, with recorded context for each piece of music. There are 118 recordings, divided into four categories - lullaby, love, dance, and healing songs. (You can explore the recordings in this interactive visualisation of the project.) …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details