Music is a powerful ‘social glue’ which brings people together all over the world, a new study has claimed.
Research from the University of Exeter and Tokyo University of the Arts discovered that music from across the globe shares several features that encourage group bonding and coordination in social situations.
Dr Thomas Currie from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus, said: ‘Our findings help explain why humans make music.
‘The results show that the most common features seen in music around the world relate to things that allow people to coordinate their actions, and suggest that the main function of music is to bring people together and bond social groups - it can be a kind of social glue.’
Researchers analysed 304 recordings of stylistically diverse music from across the world to find many statistical similarities including features related to pitch, rhythm and social context.
The survey results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Research from the University of Exeter and Tokyo University of the Arts discovered that music from across the globe shares several features that encourage group bonding and coordination in social situations.
Dr Thomas Currie from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus, said: ‘Our findings help explain why humans make music.
‘The results show that the most common features seen in music around the world relate to things that allow people to coordinate their actions, and suggest that the main function of music is to bring people together and bond social groups - it can be a kind of social glue.’
Researchers analysed 304 recordings of stylistically diverse music from across the world to find many statistical similarities including features related to pitch, rhythm and social context.
The survey results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
