Why do we (humans) make music? I’ll try to sum up the current theories I’ve read into one short blog post.

Evolutionary Psychology is a relatively new science which attempts to explain everything humans do through an evolutionary purpose. The danger in this science is that many of the speculations are quite difficult to turn into testable hypotheses; therefore clear and precise answers are nearly impossible. In other words, this is, at best, educated conjecture.

Darwin thought that our ability to create and enjoy music was rooted in sexual selection. From his book The Descent of Man:

“… primeval man, or rather some early progenitor of man, probably first used his voice in producing true musical cadences, that is in singing, as do some of the gibbon-apes at the present day; … this power would have been especially exerted during the courtship of the sexes,—would have expressed various emotions, such as love, jealousy, triumph,—and would have served as a challenge to rivals.”

Nature is full of examples of animals doing crazy things in order to attract a mate. From a pure survival standpoint, it’s easy for us to see why the biggest male lion gets to breed with the most females. On the other hand, it’s a little weirder when you think about, for example, the sexual selection of these exotic birds:

A big, strong lion is desirable because it will supposedly produce big, strong offspring. But why would some birds choose the best dancer (or singer), when dance offers very little in terms of survival technique (how often does a fabulous dance protect from predators, or provide the next meal)?

In short, Darwin’s theory suggests that music started as mating calls, and became increasingly complex as humans themselves became complex. Choosing the best mate became much more than a body inspection or a show of strength. The best mate would be the one who was healthy enough to have free time for creating art, not to mention the brains to make his/her song stand out. And it’s very possible that this sexual desire for “brainy” art helped drive us to become as (supposedly) intelligent as we are today.

This theory’s shortcoming is that music isn’t only about sex; we find it in so many aspects of our lives, serving many different purposes. We have incredibly complex social circles and hierarchies, and music is often used as part of our identity of “self”: think about a song that is special to you and your lover, your alma mater ditty, your favorite piece, your favorite genre, the songs that “belong” to your circle of friends. Music is closely linked to our social and personal life and identity – I’d argue that it is very similar to the concept of Wittgenstein‘s Language-Game.

So, building on Darwin’s original idea, the current thinkers believe that human musical competence began as a tool for sexual selection (mating calls), driving the brain to develop dramatically. As this music-based sexual selection pushed humans to become more and more intelligent, our brains became increasingly capable of more complex music – some even argue that spoken language actually was a byproduct of our musical skills’ growth. As humans became more and more intelligent, our musical abilities grew to relate not only to sexual selection, but also social status, identity, and other things. There is some debate whether the advanced musical abilities served an evolutionary purpose (for example, tribal identity: using a certain song or musical style) or if our obsession with music was just a “lucky” byproduct of these other evolved abilities.

So our reason to listen to or create music could be anything from love, identity, etc., or for no reason at all – simply to enjoy it.

Check out PART II of this – Why do we enjoy music! And in the meantime, listen to this guy play a copy of a 60,000 year old instrument, and ask yourself, could he be a potential mate?

If you want to go deeper, the bulk of this post was based on these books:

Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: Robert Jourdain
This is your Brain on Music: Daniel Levitin