Blue Notes

There is a battle being waged about music, about why we like it so much and why we have it at all. On one side, we have cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker, championing the “auditory cheesecake” team, those who believe music to be a non-­evolutionarily crucial, although pleasant, side effect of our development of language. On the other, we have professor of psychology and behaviour neuroscience Daniel J. Levitin, who champions the pro-evolutionary stance first put forward by Charles Darwin, that, in the English biologist’s words, “musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male and female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.” Both sides are well argued, rigorous and contemporary, leaving us with a rather thrilling answer to the question why do we make music: no one really knows.

This certainly has not stopped academics...