I recently read this book called This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin, and there was this part on why people like the music they do, and why, as people grow older, they become less receptive of new styles and genres of music. Not a fan of the book, but I do like this idea that he put across, so I thought I'd share.

According to Levitin, people develop mental schema, even for music appreciation, and enjoyment comes in when the listener can predict how a piece is going to progress, and even more so when the composer defies the listener's expectation, which was established based on these musical schema in the listener's head. Hence, in the absence of certain schema, say, schema for Indian music, the listener has no means of predicting what should come next, much less have his expectations defied. As a result, to one listener without the necessary schema, Indian music is just a random splatter of notes, but to another with these schema, the music is pure joy.

The good news is, schema can be built up with exposure. So it just follows that sometimes, if you expose yourself to a genre long enough, you may build up a schema for that type of music, and when that happens, that genre starts to make sense to you. Sometimes and may are used because exposure doesn't guarantee schema creation. There are a host of other factors which I can't recall and put down without making gross misquotes, but one thing I remember is that it takes more to create new schema in older brains (hence mum and dad are always asking you to turn down the speakers). 

The idea of schema in our heads enabling us to enjoy music kinda appeals to me. To use a really old school analogy (sorry, but this tech laggard doesn't exactly know how the PSP works), it's like how you'll need a certain game cartridge to play a certain video game. The only difference is, instead of buying a new cartridge, what I need to do is build that so-called cartridge in my head by listening with a more open mind. Sounds simple enough, and certainly rewarding. It's not what the book proposed that inspired me, it's just that of late, I'm getting less and less excited about the music I hear. People I'm following aren't exactly breaking new ground, new people I'm "discovering" sound like people I've heard ever since I was in junior college... and don't even suggest radio. Most stuff in there sound uninspired to me. Maybe I'm not listening hard enough. Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Or maybe, I'm just getting old and new schema aren't forming in my head as quickly as I'd like them to. So I guess I'll need to work harder at that, because one thing for sure is that I'm certainly getting bored of the music that my existing schema are allowing me to enjoy. I really miss the sheer joy experienced when a song blows me away with its out-of-my-world cleverness, and I want to experience that again.