Vibes d'Afrique - Music & Psychology

Shad
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Music & Psychology
« Thread Started on Jul 24, 2012, 6:44am »

I would to introduce this interesting article about Music & the Brain. Very insightful, here's an snip:

Quote:

A human brain is divided into two hemispheres, and the right hemisphere has been traditionally identified as the seat of music appreciation. However, no one has found a "music center" there, or anywhere else. Studies of musical understanding in people who have damage to either hemisphere, as well as brain scans of people taken while listening to tunes, reveal that music perception emerges from the interplay of activity in both sides of the brain.

Some brain circuits respond specifically to music; but, as you would expect, parts of these circuits participate in other forms of sound processing. For example, the region of the brain dedicated to perfect pitch is also involved in speech perception.

Music and other sounds entering the ears go to the auditory cortex, assemblages of cells just above both ears. The right side of the cortex is crucial for perceiving pitch as well as certain aspects of melody, harmony, timbre, and rhythm. (All the people tested were right-handed, so brain preferences may differ in lefties.)

The left side of the brain in most people excels at processing rapid changes in frequency and intensity, both in music and words. Such rapid changes occur when someone plucks a violin string versus running a bow across it.

Both left and right sides are necessary for complete perception of rhythm. For example, both hemispheres need to be working to tell the difference between three-quarter and four-quarter time.

The front part of your brain (frontal cortex), where working memories are stored, also plays a role in rhythm and melody perception.

"It's not clear what, if any, part these hearing centers play in 'feeling' music," Tramo notes. "Other areas of the brain deal with emotion and pleasure. There is a great deal of effort going on to map connections between the auditory cortex and parts of the brain that participate in emotion."

Researchers have found activity in brain regions that control movement even when people just listen to music without moving any parts of their bodies. "If you're just thinking about tapping out a rhythm, parts of the motor system in your brain light up," Tramo notes.

More on the article here: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/03.22/04-music.html

So maybe most mabangas and political songs about the government, social issues, etc have do with your left hemisphere while the right is based on creativity, music appreciation (music intelligence will be found in this side), emotions, etc. Speaking of Love? I have analyzed that Koffi Olomide mostly uses his right side of the hemisphere because most of his talks about romance and love which is related to emotions and the soothing "Tcha Tcho" rhythm no wonder he has a lot of females fans. But is it possible for an ballad to turn an explosive sebene? Guess it's about perception, how would you perceive the rhythm pattern and how would you lead it.

« Last Edit: Jul 24, 2012, 6:47am by Shad »

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Franco Pepe Kalle
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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #1 on Jul 24, 2012, 6:29pm »

This article makes total sense. Koffi is definitely right brained because he loves to speak about love and his feeling for a woman. I would say Franco was left brain because he made songs that were about life and even his love songs often had some political or social implications which sometimes got him in major trouble.

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David N
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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #2 on Jul 24, 2012, 7:04pm »

I have to disagree!
To even listen to Koffi's new music requires an extraordinary amount of effort and analytic concentration by the left hemisphere.
The creative has been entirely replaced by the analytic, with the flow of the music being disrupted at any and every possible turn.
As with visual art, subject matter should be entirely secondary to composition and craftsmanship. One should be struck by the beauty of the art, musical or visual, upon initial exposure with analysis or parsing of the composition coming next and analysis or parsing of the message coming later still, both adding intellectual pleasure to to the initial pleasure.
So many people who do not even speak Lingala or French love the music of Franco, Via la Musica, Choc Stars, etc. Why? Because they are things of immediate beauty in composition and craftsmanship. People love these songs immediately though they may not immediately be able to express why.
Now we have conceptual art, both visual and musical (in Koffi's case) in which the "why" appears to be primary with visual or aural enjoyment being allotted a secondary position.
Subject matter, be it love or politics, has little to do with it unless we begin to read Koffi's poetry before we listen to his music.

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Shad
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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #3 on Jul 25, 2012, 12:03am »

Jul 24, 2012, 7:04pm, David N wrote:

I have to disagree!
To even listen to Koffi's new music requires an extraordinary amount of effort and analytic concentration by the left hemisphere.
The creative has been entirely replaced by the analytic, with the flow of the music being disrupted at any and every possible turn.
As with visual art, subject matter should be entirely secondary to composition and craftsmanship. One should be struck by the beauty of the art, musical or visual, upon initial exposure with analysis or parsing of the composition coming next and analysis or parsing of the message coming later still, both adding intellectual pleasure to to the initial pleasure.
So many people who do not even speak Lingala or French love the music of Franco, Via la Musica, Choc Stars, etc. Why? Because they are things of immediate beauty in composition and craftsmanship. People love these songs immediately though they may not immediately be able to express why.
Now we have conceptual art, both visual and musical (in Koffi's case) in which the "why" appears to be primary with visual or aural enjoyment being allotted a secondary position.
Subject matter, be it love or politics, has little to do with it unless we begin to read Koffi's poetry before we listen to his music.

Yeah he does use some of his left brain because he is planning on how the tracks should sound like but that's also left to the musicians that are also helping with their input which encourages an win-win attitude rather than just disagreement which leads to conflict, dispute, etc. But he's dominant on his right because that's what musical intelligence is based to able to study the tone, rhythm, pitch and tibre, where to set up the lyrics and how to complete the song to make it an masterpiece.

The reason the people who don't understand/aren't fond of the language enjoy the music because their set in the right part of using musical intelligence appreciate foreign sounds or have their mind tuned to the rhythm rather than words that are completely unknown from their area or origin but does it also have to do with maturity and perception? It seems like an lot of open minded people tend to be attracted by Congolese Music's unique characteristics and would love to dig deeper to learn about their music and the culture; but also not forgetting curiosity. When you talk about visual? What do you exactly mean? Is it related to english literature like using the combination of similes and metaphors when constructing lyrics? Koffi & Wazekwa must be skilled in literature/writing since they tend to be poetic but I agree with your input.

« Last Edit: Jul 25, 2012, 12:10am by Shad »

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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #4 on Jul 25, 2012, 1:05am »

Shad one question. I know that Koffi/wazekwa are sometimes compared to Simaro. But for me, it is difficult to explain why I am drawn to many Simaro compositions word for word even though I do not understand much. How would you explain this? Let alone the fact that as a teen I could sing Orch Shama Shama, Kiam, Lipua Lipua, Veve etc songs and some of my friends could write for us the lyrics even though we hadly knew any words. I believe it is more to do with instrumental arrangements (the urgence in the flow of guitar) and intertwined with vocal arrangements and all culminate in fast dancing at the end. That is the music as we know it. Yes, there might be open minded folks who want to experiment. It was the same with disco, the music drew us to the dance floor even though some songs were accompanied with messaging in compositions. The funny thing is: I have lots of classical music but it is difficult for me to differentiate between compositions except for just a few : Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Strauss. But many experts speak passionately about classical music like they are telling a known story. I guess the brain is that complex.

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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #5 on Jul 25, 2012, 1:23am »

I now remember that I have also this book: "This is your brain on music: the science of human obsession" by daniel J. Levitin that I bought upon recommendation of a HIFI magazine. I did not continue reading it because of its reliance on classical music (too much) on structure of listening and recognizing music.

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Shad
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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #6 on Jul 25, 2012, 4:35am »

Jul 25, 2012, 1:05am, Prof Nuna wrote:

Shad one question. I know that Koffi/wazekwa are sometimes compared to Simaro. But for me, it is difficult to explain why I am drawn to many Simaro compositions word for word even though I do not understand much. How would you explain this? Let alone the fact that as a teen I could sing Orch Shama Shama, Kiam, Lipua Lipua, Veve etc songs and some of my friends could write for us the lyrics even though we hadly knew any words. I believe it is more to do with instrumental arrangements (the urgence in the flow of guitar) and intertwined with vocal arrangements and all culminate in fast dancing at the end. That is the music as we know it. Yes, there might be open minded folks who want to experiment. It was the same with disco, the music drew us to the dance floor even though some songs were accompanied with messaging in compositions. The funny thing is: I have lots of classical music but it is difficult for me to differentiate between compositions except for just a few : Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Strauss. But many experts speak passionately about classical music like they are telling a known story. I guess the brain is that complex.

Simaro is very expressive with his compositions but that's mostly an subset from the left hemisphere of the brain which discusses a lot of political, social issues, or any topic that his mind comes up too while the 70's Cavacha bands such as Orc Shama Shama, Lipua Lipua, Veve were heavily reliant on the right part or both because combining both lyrical both having an dance rhythm supported by the musicians because of creativity and analyzing rhythm from the drummer. The guitarist's job is support the drummer by creating riffs or loops that go with the drummer pattern which goes in variety depends on the composition from the artist.

I also don't know why people say Franco songs weren't dance-able because TPOK Jazz has very explosive exciting sebenes with roaring multi-complex guitars accompanied by the drummer, percussions & brass section but Franco was an genius with an active mind. It's also interesting how the drummer can determine which pattern goes right with each individual song.

« Last Edit: Jul 25, 2012, 4:39am by Shad »

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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #7 on Jul 27, 2012, 2:09am »

Shad M: It is interesting the way you put it. But I always wonder whether our brains are biased towards what we listen and pay particular attention too. For me, with Franco, JB Mpiana, Papa Wemba, and (to some extent Koffi/Madilu) of course in addition to the youth bands of the 70s I know all songs on the album without effort with even a first listen. Then the songs are like a playlist in my head. For Franco and Tabu Ley since it is hard for us to have original album and have only compiled releases I have compiled about 8 cds of each that I play often but somehow the playlists of the songs are programmed in my head. For many other singers I listen and relisten but I can know may be names of the obvious hits to me. One of my favorite cds I listen to is Longue Histoire cd2 , I play this cd at least once a month but I cannot tell you the names of the sequence of the songs until I am playing them. While I know TH, Anti-terror, SS and several others from Wenge Musica and BCBG like my palms or fingers. There must be something at play here because I really buy and enjoy a lot of music.

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Shad
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Re: Music & Psychology
« Reply #8 on Jul 30, 2012, 2:54am »

Jul 27, 2012, 2:09am, Prof Nuna wrote:

Shad M: It is interesting the way you put it. But I always wonder whether our brains are biased towards what we listen and pay particular attention too. For me, with Franco, JB Mpiana, Papa Wemba, and (to some extent Koffi/Madilu) of course in addition to the youth bands of the 70s I know all songs on the album without effort with even a first listen. Then the songs are like a playlist in my head. For Franco and Tabu Ley since it is hard for us to have original album and have only compiled releases I have compiled about 8 cds of each that I play often but somehow the playlists of the songs are programmed in my head. For many other singers I listen and relisten but I can know may be names of the obvious hits to me. One of my favorite cds I listen to is Longue Histoire cd2 , I play this cd at least once a month but I cannot tell you the names of the sequence of the songs until I am playing them. While I know TH, Anti-terror, SS and several others from Wenge Musica and BCBG like my palms or fingers. There must be something at play here because I really buy and enjoy a lot of music.

Maybe it's preference or taste, I use a balance of my left and right but mostly right to enjoy the music but one thing I noticed is it that music critics mostly use their left brain to analyze the record instead of briefly listening?

I can easily remember how great an album from the sebenes or rhumbas, some may remember by lyrics or how popular the recording was. Some albums that don't hit the market such as in Brazzaville or Kinshasa are very good but get looked over. BTW, the CD's you listed are classics, only listened to S.S. once.

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The good thing about music is when you hear it you feel no pain
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Shad The Soukousman