Musical Arousal and the Science behind it

I thought this article about musical arousal was very interesting and since our name is Tasty Sounds (mixing up the senses) this article seemed like something I wanted to share. Listening to music may not be as fun as having sex, but it triggers the same pleasure-inducing chemical in the brain. Neuroscientists at McGill University scanned the brains of volunteers as they listened to their favorite instrumental music, ranging from punk to Beethoven to bagpipes. The scans revealed that as a particularly thrilling moment of music approached , the part of the brain’s striatum region that’s involved in anticipation and prediction released the neuro-chemical dopamine–the same chemical that gives rise to pleasurable feelings associated with eating, sex, and psychoactive drugs. When the musical climax arrived, dopamine surged through a different part of the striatum.

The study recruited only volunteers who claimed to get chills from certain musical passages, but researchers say the dopamine response is probably common to all listeners. Previous research has hinted at a link between dopamine and musical enjoyment (Musical Arousal), notes Harvard neurologist Gottfried Schlaug, who was not involved in the new finding, but the McGill study nails it.

So what does this mean for a DJ company? Well I always feel that every person that showed up at an event went through a bad damn day to get to us. From the minute you walk in, we want to change that attitude and I believe that only music can make that change quickly in your body. The music hits the brain and (with the help of Alcohol) your mood changes. Obviously, like getting into a hot tub we need to alter your moods slowly so that later in the evening your hand are above your heading clapping to the music. Tasty Sounds is not just a clever name, it’s a whole commitment to mind, body and spirit changed my musical arousal.