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Alayna Kennedy
ENGL 137H
Dr. Mary Miles
3 November 2014
The Shift of the Function of Music in Society
On a crisp October day, composer Frederic Chopin wrote an entire operatic aria titled
Gretchen Am Spinnrade or Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel. The staccato music of the piano
blends seamlessly with the harmonies provided by violins, cellos, and, of course, a female
sopranos voice in a brilliantly composed musical score. Not only is the music for this piece
complex and stimulating, but the lyrics Chopin writes are filled with meaning and the
philosophical nature of a woman in love, writing My bosom urges itself / toward him. / Ah,
might I grasp / And hold him! Chopins piece was an immediate hit, well-loved by people of all
ages and classes. Two hundred years after this pieces success, the most popular songs in
American music include repetitious and meaningless lyrics like Cause the players gonna play,
play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate / Baby, I'm just gonna
shake, shake, shake, shake, shake (Swift). These two song lyrics serve to exemplify how the
function of music in Western society has shifted throughout the course of history. Music
possesses the intrinsic biological capability to form social relationships, and the first songs and
compositions reflected this purely social function, bringing individuals and communities
together. However, throughout the Middle Ages and Medieval Ages, music became a way to
convey higher emotions and lofty ideals. During the Renaissance, music was almost completely
intellectual, incorporating aspects of science, mathematics, and philosophy. However, after the

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Industrial Revolution and the creation of a middle class, the function of music shifted away from
the intellectual and back toward the social and pleasurable.
Music has produced marked neurological reactions in all human beings throughout
history, regardless of culture, race, gender, or age. Although music is traditionally viewed as a
form of art, it triggers neurological activity in the brain, and therefore it possesses biological
evolutionary functions. Since Darwin first introduced the idea of evolution through natural
selection, scientists have pondered the evolutionary origin of music and questioned the biological
role that music plays in human development. Today, most researchers agree that vocal song
preceded human speech, and that it continued to evolve because music possesses two important
biological functions: facilitating social connections and triggering beneficial cognitive reactions
(Schulkin). Throughout history, these two evolutionary functions have created a dichotomy
between music that possesses a social function and music that possesses a more intellectual
function.
In an evolutionary sense, music is biologically favorable because it creates positive social
connections between people and societies. Darwin theorized that music was formed as a mating
mechanism, and that it evolved as a way to create social connections between family and
community members (Schulkin). As a species, music helps us form the vast social bonds and
networks that make our species so successful. Studies have shown a correlation between music
and expansion of the neocortex, which is the area of the brain that controls complex emotions
and social cognitive skills. The effects of this neurological reaction are myriad: children who
listen to music are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior, mothers who sing to their
children form closer bonds with them, and societies that produce music in a group setting are
more successful (Schulkin). However, music does not just perform a social function. It also

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activates the frontal lobe and areas in both the right and left hemispheres of the brain. In this
way, music serves to promote intellectual cognition and memory processes. As exemplified by
the composers of the 18th century, music can be intellectually engaging and stimulating, not just
socially enjoyable (Dobney).
Although vocal music has existed since humans developed voice boxes and instrumental
music has existed since at least ancient Egypt, most musicology scholars agree that organized
compositions only began to emerge around 500 BCE (Clayton). Musicology scholars point to
this period as the time when music began shifting from the more primitive art of vocal song to
the higher art of true musical composition. Before this period, music was simply a collection of
vocal songs, which focus on the more primitive and biological functions of music such as the
emergence of language and social bonds (Clayton). However, compositions during the Middle
Ages and Medieval Age remained extremely simple. Songs were monophonic in nature, meaning
that they had only a single vocal or instrumental melody without any harmonious support from
other voices or instruments (Sherrane).
During this pre-Renaissance time period, religious organizations like the Catholic Church
dominated the political and cultural world, so most early compositions were primarily religious
in nature. For example, Gregorian chants and religious hymns comprised the majority of musical
pieces for almost 1000 years (Sherrane). These songs were among the first attempts to use music
to appeal to higher human intellect and emotion. No longer was music simply a tool for
enjoyment and social interactions, but it was a way to raise the mind above the everyday world.
This marked the first shift of music away from its biological origins toward a more developed
and civilized form of music that focused on engaging human intellect, imagination, and
propensity for deeper meaning (Clayton). However, music was still primarily a tool to form

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social connections. Religious songs were sung together and used as a means to engage
community members in mass or other religious festivals. In addition, wandering bards and
troubadors cultivated a more secular strain of music that included folk songs, epic ballads, sung
legends, and love songs (Sherrane). These songs were popular among the lower classes because
bards were cheap and readily available, unlike the expensive religious compositions that were
often reserved for the upper classes. Because they fostered comradery, friendship, and love, these
songs exemplify the social function of music that was still dominant during this time period.
While music continued to evolve throughout the Middle Ages and Medieval Ages, it
underwent a significant transformation during the Renaissance, becoming a more complex and
meaningful form of art. Just as earlier forms of song focused only on the social capacities of
music, Renaissance musicians crafted pieces that were designed to engage the intellectual mind.
During this rebirth of music and culture, many Northern European composers began basing their
compositions on complex mathematical models and formulas. For example, composer Johannes
Ockeghemthe popularized the use of mensuration, a complex sequence of points in an algebraic
structure, in writing compositions (Barth). Moreover, standardized mathematical musical
notation became the norm for all genres of songwriting. Music, previously thought of as an art
form, became akin to the sciences and mathematics (Schulkin).
The birth of this new intellectual strain of music marks the completion of a shift in the
function of music within society. While the function and purpose of earlier forms of music were
primarily social, the high compositions of the 18th century were more intellectual in nature. One
major difference that emerged during this time period was that intellectually focused music was
popular among all classes of people, not just the rich. In fact, Europeans prided themselves on
the soaring and lofty nature of their music. As one scholar described it, these compositions of the

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late and high Renaissance periods possessed breathtaking transcendental, spiritual capacities
(Clayton). Although less technical and socially driven songs and ballads were still prevalent,
they did not dominate the music scene of the time.
After the Renaissance, the next great shift in the function of music in society occurred
during the industrial revolution, a period of tremendous and unprecedented global change. New
democratic ideas and the development of new technologies and factories created accessible jobs
for the lower classes, which resulted in the creation of a middle class (Dobney). The men and
women of this newly formed middle class wanted some form of musical entertainment to spend
their newly disposable income on, and composers and musicians catered to the whims of the new
audience. As a result, music became a form of entertainment, a public spectacle where people
could socialize and enjoy themselves. While classical operas and arias continued to be wellloved, ballads, folk songs, and pub songs started to become the dominant genre of music
(Dobney).
As the world entered the 20th century, the function of music continued to shift away from
the intellectual stimulation of the Renaissance back to the social and biologically driven
functions of previous ages. Today, popular songs are engineered to provoke a basic biological
response: the release of dopamine. This chemical, released after the ears pick up certain
wavelengths of sound and send the corresponding signals to the brain, causes a feeling of
happiness or euphoria. For this reason, almost all Top 40 songs utilize the same four chords and
the same tiny range of timbre and pitch (Matson). Studies have shown that most popular songs
are designed to release this chemical into the brain in order to trigger feelings of pleasure and
therefore sell more copies of the song (Schulkin).

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While the historical evolution of music contains so many facets and details that it merits
its own field of study, the basic function that music serves within society can be traced back to
the beginnings of human civilization. Music evokes biological reactions within the human brain;
biologically, it helps us form social relationships, but it can also stimulate the higher thinking
areas of our brain. Throughout history, Western society has emphasized different combinations of
these two functions. Early songs had purely social functions: festival songs, religious ceremony
chants, or other songs sung in a group environment. However, composers began to treat music as
a tool for intellectual stimulation. During the Renaissance and into the 1800s, this intellectual
focus of music peaked. However, after the emergence of the middle class after the industrial
revolution, music became a socially-drive public spectacle. Today, most popular music is aimed
at our more base instincts instead of the intellectual ones of the Renaissance.

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Works Cited
Barth, Eric. "Composing." Salem Press. Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Society, n.d. Web. 31
Oct. 2014.
Clayton, Martin, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, eds. The Cultural Study of Music: A
Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Dobney, Jayson Kerr. "Nineteenth-Century Classical Music". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art
History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Matson, John. "Is Pop Music Evolving, or Is It Just Getting Louder?" Scientific American Global
RSS. Scientific American, Inc., 26 July 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Schulkin, Jay, and Greta B. Raglan. "The Evolution of Music and Human Social Capability."
National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17
Sept. 2014. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Sherrane, Robert. "The Middle Ages: A Guide to Western Composers and Their Music." Music
History 102. Drexel University, 2009. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Swift, Taylor. A-Z Lyrics. 2014. Shake It Off Lyrics.