There is a girl who I hate. Okay, hate would not be the right word. Maybe I dislike her the most. But one day, I found that she really liked a song that I found so beautiful. We literally have nothing in common. But the music we’ve listened to had nothing to do with our individual traits or any kind of characteristics that we developed in order to develop a likeness towards the song. Is that why music is universal?
When I googled “why do people love music?”, of course, many sites popped up. One of the sites said that while listening to music, the brain releases a brain chemical called dopamine, which makes us feel happy and content, just like when we eat a mouthful of our favourite mouth-watering dish after a tiresome day. We, humans who evolved with the same organ called the brain, despite our history and nationality, still enjoy music, which makes us feel euphoric. Is that why music is universal?
Apart from neurotransmitter-thingy, a world full of humans who practise their own cultures and values and speak different languages still expresses their own feelings through music and the emergence of expressiveness via music started not today or decades ago but so many centuries ago, which is through traditional or classical music. Every traditional music is distinctive, but every culture shares this same way of expressing emotions through music. Is this why music is universal?
Music makes people joyful; it makes people sad and can even make people cry; it makes people get inspired by its lyrics and be motivated to achieve their goals; it can even make people enjoy their lives just by “lemme listen to this song one more time” and clicking the play button. Is this why music is universal?
Music can be universal because emotions are universal. A person from the northern hemisphere expresses his/her/their happiness through smiling, just like a person from the southern hemisphere. If a Bengali girl gets heartbroken, she’ll cry to let her emotions be just like an American boy who lost his mother in an accident. Happiness, sadness, anger, and all the emotions are universal despite diversities like language, race, and culture. Through music, people express emotions. Maybe that is why music is universal. Maybe.
a simple girl's rambles 