Chapter 2 of “This Is Your Brain On Music” focuses on the rhythm and the recognition of harmonies and melodies by the human brain. It explains the difference between the rhythm and tempo, where the tempo is how fast or slow a piece of music is performed, while the rhythm is the placement of sounds in time. I was fascinated by the author when he says that our brain will still recognize a piece of music even though when it is performed differently than the original.
He talks about the difference between consonance and dissonance, and the brain’s reaction to each consonance is associated with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, while dissonance is associated with harshness, unpleasantness, or unacceptability. Also, music is about expectation and our preference for music depends on how the music surprises us and make us comfortable.
Good music is known to be unexpected but not too much to the point we can’t expect what is coming. Music is a reflection of our society it affects our preferences and expectations. Different cultures will have a different style of music that is representative of them. This expectation is what makes us associate certain styles of music to culture.