I know what music sounds like, but what does it SOUND like?
March 5, 2012 10:07 AM   Subscribe

How would someone who had never heard music perceive the sounds for the first time? What sort of reaction could be expected?

I'm writing a story about a hunter-gatherer's integration into modern society. My character comes from a remote (fictional) tribe with no music of its own.

I'm trying to figure out how the human brain might interpret it without the cultural context we all have... for example, rock and jazz were both considered abrasive when they were new, but now that culture's adjusted to them they can be pleasant or even relaxing to most people. I've noticed my own feelings toward industrial music and dubstep have become more favorable with increased exposure to them. I've also read that Stravinsky's (beautiful, classical) The Rite of Spring was considered so raucous at its premiere that a riot broke out in the music hall. Without an appropriate contextual lens to frame such an occurrence it seems beyond belief. So how could I even begin to approach this scenario for my story?

Of course the type of music my character hears will make a difference. I haven't decided yet. It might be a capella or instrumental. Maybe some sort of bardic, single-instrument folk song. I don't think I dare unleash anything too cacophonous on her poor eardrums! But what could I reasonably expect her reaction to be in any of these situations?
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis to Society & Culture (13 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
There's almost no chance that a remote tribe would have no music. We probably had music before we had language.
posted by empath at 10:10 AM on March 5, 2012 [3 favorites]


This documentary has a group of New Guinea tribesman going to see Stomp, where they say it reminds them of War Dances.
posted by empath at 10:14 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


I once saw a clip of some news piece or documentary or something, in which a reporter was playing a recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons for a Yanomami Amazonian man. The Yanomami listened in fascination, and then asked if what he was listening to was a recording of some other language. ....He also seemed to dig it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:17 AM on March 5, 2012


Response by poster: Substitute "humanoid alien" for "hunter-gatherer" if it helps. The fictional world of my story doesn't necessarily support the same assumptions as ours; it's a hypothetical exercise.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:17 AM on March 5, 2012


I'd watch videos of cochlear implant activations. Not quite exactly the same as what you're talking about, but might give you some ideas.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:22 AM on March 5, 2012 [7 favorites]


Language and Music, for anybody remotely like a human being, is going to be fairly inextricably intertwined.

If you're talking about something which isn't human, then you can make up anything you want. Call it noise. Look at symptoms for Amusia. Or read reports of people with cochlear implants.
posted by empath at 10:22 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


It's not what you're asking, but this old AskMe could be useful to develop your character:
Is there a documented case of a human civilization or culture that has/had no form of music?
posted by TheGoodBlood at 10:29 AM on March 5, 2012 [2 favorites]


Our alarm clock plays music in the AM and when it used to come on, before our daughter was familiar with it or music in general, she'd just stand there completely still and sort of unblinking, taking it in.

Maybe that would be a jumping-off place, that sort of coming-into-focus?
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:38 AM on March 5, 2012


If you Google "cochlear" and "first time I heard music," it kicks up several first-person accounts of people with cochlear implants hearing music for the first time.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:07 AM on March 5, 2012


I heard a guest on "The Daily" show (I think, or it might have been "NOVA scienceNOW") a year or so ago say that human's sense of rhythm is integral to our brains that there is no injury short of total brain death (or, you know, regular death) that can cause us to lose it and that it appears to be a uniquely human trait (birds couldn't sing their songs to a different beat, for example).

Assuming that your character is human, they would be able to recognize music in at least a very basic way. The sense of rhythm a very primal, deep, and integral part of being human so even if they hadn't ever heard music before, I don't think it would be completely alien. Or maybe it would at first but they would start to pick up on the rhythm and find themselves tapping their foot to it or just start to recognize the beat without really knowing what it is or something.

If it's an alien from a culture that never developed music, I don't know that it would register as anything other than some noise.
posted by VTX at 11:25 AM on March 5, 2012


Just a warning about using the experiences of people with cochlear implants: Cochlear implants work decently for human speech, but they're atrocious for music. Melodies are squashed flat into a terrible mess - so much so that even on the most discriminating devices, familiar pieces are often totally unrecognizable. I suppose that some cochlear implant patients may still find something to appreciate (rhythm, etc), but they're hearing something very different.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 6:36 PM on March 5, 2012 [1 favorite]


In some ways, it depends on what you consider music. If this being has a heart, then rhythm becomes innate. If they have hearing, then there is pitch perception. And if they have the ability to perceive patterns at all, then they can't avoid having heard music, in the broad sense of the word. So to completely avoid music, they'd have to lack the ability to perceive music.

Now, you could have them gain those abilities, but it's hard for me to imagine how.

If, on the other hand, you are thinking of a particular type of music, then I would imagine that the response to heavy metal vs rock n roll, vs baroque vs jazz vs rap would vary considerably. But, barring the physical inability to sense music, any of those would be a further evolution of something already familiar.
posted by bardophile at 6:54 PM on March 5, 2012


My completely uninformed guess is that rhythm would be the first thing to strike the listener, who would compare it to natural sounds, such as water dripping or flowing, etc. But it may depend on the type of music.

However, I agree with others that it seems unlikely that any earth-bound creature with the ability to hear would be completely unfamiliar with some form of music.

If the creature is capable of understanding music but has never been exposed to it, then one possible analogy would be the bit from Helen Keller's autobiography:
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honeysuckle with which it was covered. Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten–a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.

I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.
posted by tavegyl at 2:01 AM on March 6, 2012


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