Can anyone resist singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen? “Easy come, easy go. Little high, little low. Any way the wind blows. Doesn’t really matter to meeeee. To meeeeee.”
Well. If you can resist this, you might be one of the rare few people with a thing called specific musical anhedonia. As defined, it is the inability to feel pleasure in activities that are usually considered to be pleasurable.
For most of us, Beatles songs make us feel like everything’s going to be all right. Or Dolly Parton reminds us of how working nine to five gets us down. But perhaps. Just maybe. We don’t feel anything at all.
Here it is. Some people lack the ability to get pleasure from music, even though they enjoy food, fun, and other great joys in life.
Psychologists at the University of Barcelona stumbled upon this. They were screening participants for a study and using their responses to music to gauge their emotions.
The researchers found a great surprise. They discovered that music wasn’t important at all to about five percent of the people. They had no reaction whatsoever. These people didn’t bob up and down to tunes they liked. They didn’t get weepy at the sad songs. They didn’t want to belt it all out. It was like they couldn’t feel the music at all.
People with a disorder have what is called amusia.
It seems that amusia is a neurological condition. As mentioned, it affects a person’s ability to perceive or process music. People with amusia might have difficulty recognizing melodies. They also have trouble distinguishing between different musical notes or keeping rhythm. And then, in some cases, they may not even realize music is music. It all might just sound like noise to them.
Personally, I am grateful that I do not have this condition. I love music. I love the way it makes me feel. It can lift my spirits. Sometimes it pumps me up, while other times, it calms me down. It takes me away. Away. To place long ago and far away.
Yes. I love the music.
May we all be able to find music in our hearts and in our minds. Always.
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“Where words fail, music speaks.” — Hans Christian Andersen
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“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” — Plato
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“Music is the strongest form of magic.” — Marilyn Manson
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“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” — Victor Hugo
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