Natural High Notes

A study written about here suggests that a person's favorite music causes neurotransmitters to release dopamine, a chemical within the brain that the body uses to make itself feel good. The same chemical is used to make the body like its favorite foods, illicit pharmaceuticals and that special mommy-daddy hug; two of which may be related to survival instincts.

The researchers found that there was no connection between the types of music and whether or not dopamine was released. The wall of noise that opens the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" will do just as well as "Rites of Spring" if the listener happens to prefer the Pistols to Stravinsky or likes them both equally. Although the study used instrumental music to be sure the response wasn't triggered by the words of the songs, the effect would be the same for songs with words.

It seems to me like even when your musical tastes expand -- and mine have; the 16-year-old me would not under any circumstances have owned albums by George Jones, Ralph Stanley, Sutton Foster or Keely Smith -- there is a kind of music you heard when you were younger that will catch you quicker than any other kind. My folks grew to appreciate a very limited some of the stuff I listened to as a kid, but both of them will prefer Ray Charles in a heartbeat.

My own tastes, as I mentioned, have expanded, but give me some peppy New Wave power pop, thrashy three-chord punk mayhem or retro cool bare-bones rockabilly and you will catch my ears every time, even if the stuff isn't all that good. I have, after all, no other rational explanation for owning a copy of Green Day's Dookie. In my defense, I will say that's the only Green Day I own; I wised up when they started exceeding their warrant and thinking they had something to say beyond "Sometimes I give myself the creeps."

Anyway, one thing that interested me is that when the person was listening to familiar music, the brain had actually trained itself to kick out the dopamine some ten to 20 seconds before the favorite passage started up. Not only does music create a "natural high" by raising dopamine levels, it also raises the levels to increase the natural high by starting your feel-good before your ears hear the actual feel-good starter.

Of course, none of the above explains why I like bagpipe music. That may remain a mystery unsolved this side of the eschaton.