An Introductory Post: The Popular Subject of Music

     I thought that I should start off with something everyone in the world can connect to: music. Have you ever wondered why, no matter what culture one is or how old he is, almost any person you talk to likes some form of music? Cognitive scientists have asked the same question, I mean after all, music is only the vibrations of sounds going into our ears and being interpreted into noise simply for the evolutionary convenience of being able to have another sense in our body to be aware of the world around us. So why does everyone like it? The truth is, I have not read a single article that has given me a straight answer. If someone else has found one, then great! Please show me, but all I have read has been interesting, but overall beating around the bush as to the answer. But here is a neat fact. Practically all music, no matter what culture, uses the scales available in the animals of nature, particularly humans. That is why we can sing or hum many songs. Some psychologists believe that the love for music developed because we feel like we are connecting with another person. Another thing I read is that, just like sex and eating, listening to music releases dopamine. There are other theories, but I can't remember them right now. Nonetheless, that doesn't seem like a strong enough reason to me, has anyone read something else?

     Another thing I wanted to discuss is why everyone (but me) seems to like a specific genre of music and rarely stray from that comfort zone. What do you like? Are there people out there who stray from one genre of music? For me, as an example, I like all extremes of music, save for the majority of pop and all of country music. But why is that so? Why do we even have our own genres of music? Nevermind, I'm getting off topic, can someone psychologically connect these songs? All favorites of mine.

Blue Orchid-The White Stripes
Nest-Steve Jablonsky
Perfect Insanity-Disturbed
Ringa Ringa- A.R. Rahman
Parlament Lament-Alan Stivell
Le Hanim-Grup Yorum
Hard Sun-Eddie Vedder
Dragula-Rob Zombie
Leave No Man Behind- Hanz Zimmer

It's just a strange thing to think about, in my opinion.

I found this link, I haven't read the whole thing because I just found it, but it looks promising in relation to why we like music so I'll put the link here:
http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/MusicMindMeaning.html