This question has always itched in the back of my mind, “Why do we like the music we like?” My only leads were the assumptions that it was either A. Something we haven’t discovered yet or B. Something very complicated I would never be able to understand. There doesn’t seem to be a complete answer to this question yet, but there is interesting research into this question and some helpful clues into what’s happening inside our brains. This article asks the same question and attempts to get some answers.
The two primary components working in our brains when we listen to music we like are the auditory cortex and the accumbens nucleus. The auditory cortex processes and stores all of the sounds we hear, and each person’s auditory cortex is unique. The accumbens nucleus shows signs of reward and pleasure. The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital ran an experiment to see how these two regions of the brain interact with each other. During the study they found that “the accumbens lights up when it hears new music after the song has been filtered through the auditory cortex” (ideastations). During this process, the accumbens and auditory cortex communicate and give a reaction to the music – presumably you enjoy it or you do not. This result suggests that the accumbens, the region that plays a role in pleasure, has a hand in our reactions to hearing different music and could have an impact on what kind of music we enjoy listening to.
If this is true, then this could lead to a lot of addition questions: Are we programmed to like certain music? Could other things impact our interest in music, such as culture and context? Perhaps through our life our auditory cortex grows adjusted to hearing certain sounds, and becomes uninterested in other kinds of music. For an example, older people who love classical or jazz, but can’t stand listening to metal music. Does age also make a difference? We can’t quite answer these questions, but it’s some great food for thought.