Insights in Music and Culture
The Physics of Sound: How Science is Changing the Way we Think about Music.
An article called “Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics” by Natalie Wolchover describes the amazing scientific discoveries, emerging from universities such as Harvard and Cambridge, that challenge the way we think about ourselves, the world, and consequently, music. We tend to think of our world as the fundamental reality, but new scientific discoveries suggests otherwise - that there is another source from which our reality emanates, one outside the realm of our material universe. The article describes the discovery of a geometrical form existing outside of space-time, called the amplituhedron. This paradigm shift has important implications for the way we think about music and its effects, and how we approach composition and performance.
What is the function of Music and Art? What I learnt from interviewing 10 Artists and Musicians.
In 2021, I undertook the Xook project for the City of Sydney. The project was a series of interviews with 10 artists and musicians that sought to explore individual attitudes and perspectives to music, art, and artistic practice. What we found was that each artist used their art to penetrate deeply into life, culture, and society. Whether as way to connect with ancestral legacies, continue cultural traditions, alleviate stress, or to know themselves more deeply, we found that music and art defined their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Why we Move to Music: The Psychology of Rhythm and Entrainment
We are only beginning to understand that our ability to move to music is not a choice, but a biological necessity and evolutionary adaptation. Recent scientific research suggests that our ability to perceive rhythm is innate and fundamental, with benefits including better language and reading skills, boosted immune system functioning, enhanced anti-inflammatory properties that aid stress and ageing, social connection, and bonding. This article explores why we have adapted this capability and provides thought-provoking examples as to why cultures, religions, and modern music events have prioritised our need to move to music.
How Music Hijacks Your Nervous System—in a Good Way
Music is trans-dimensional, having the power to affect body, mind, and soul. It transforms through process called resonance, making it a conductor of human biology, physical matter, and the human psyche. To understand the concept of resonance, we need to understand what music is at a fundamental level. This article explores music and its interpersonal connection through the science of resonance, an understanding that changes our conception of music, its nature, and effects.
How we Hear: Recreating the World through Sound
Summary
Contrary to what you may expect, sound is not ‘out there’ in the world but a product of our brains. In fact, sound develops through a recreation of vibration information from the external environment. This poses interesting questions about the nature of perception and reality, and the way we experience the world. The article starts with a discussion about the biological nature of sound and hearing, and then moves to a Philosophy of Sound that challenges the way we think about the world and our role within it.
Every Transformation Follows This Pattern: Dark Night of the Soul and its Relation to Music
This article describes the process of the dark night of the soul. From a psychological perspective, it outlines the archetypal model for transformation appearing in countless myths, religions, and music. It describes the way humans transform into personalities more aligned with life and guided by higher purpose.
Beyond Sound Healing: The Music Method That Rewires the Psyche
Sound healing is great, but sometimes we need something that doesn’t just relax us, but actually transforms us at a fundamental level. It’s about using sound and music in a targeted, psychological way to shift emotional blocks, gain personal insight, and navigate life transitions. This article discusses the Subconscious Music Method (SMM), a simple but powerful process that uses sound as a transformational healing tool.
The Hidden Patterns in Music: How to Use Archetypes
An archetype is a psychological pattern contained in the worlds myths, stories, in art and music. Learning to recognise these archetypal patterns is vital for creatives, giving their works power and the ability to connect at a deeper level. This article describes the Hero Archetype and its relation to ritual process, and shows how it is used in music to aid transformation of consciousness.
The Healing Power of Music
How does music heal ? This article explores this question and suggests that three core elements are necessary for music healing to occur. It uses examples from Latin American ritual, Catholicism, and electronic music festivals to suggest that differences in cultural music are united by these three core elements, used to produce music healing for different audiences and in different cultural contexts.
The Spiritual Roots of Electronic Dance Music (Part 2)
This article continues on from the Part 1 which describes the evolution of Electronic Dance Music’s (EDM) spiritual roots. Part 2 expands on this understanding, outlining the musical tropes that evolve from ritual, used within House music, and developed into modern EDM. These tropes are included within a philosophy for music creation and performance which aims for altered states, such as experiences of trance, ecstasy, and euphoria. This modern evolution comprises new music technologies, performance approaches, and sounds, incorporated within modern music events and festivals.
The Spiritual Roots of Electronic Dance Music (Part 1)
Summary
Unbeknownst to most, Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has spiritual roots. The article explores the beginnings of House music and its evolution into modern EDM. It argues that house music develops from African American and Latino sub-cultures who desired freedom of expression, connection with a higher power, and strengthening of ancestral ties to Africa and Latin America. Written in two-parts, this article outlines the philosophy of altered states and trance at the core of musical and technological advancements in EDM, leading to its modern cultural and contextual evolution.
5 Ways Music promotes Health and Well-being
Summary
Music is a universal phenomenon used by all cultures around the world from the beginning of human civilisation. Recent scientific research is confirming the healing properties of music, showing that music is important for health and well-being used to treat a variety of maladies and diseases including Alzheimer’s, stress, depression, trauma, Parkinson’s, Dementia, stoke, pain, neurodevelopmental disorders, and memory loss. Apart from clinical treatments, music is useful at personal, social, and cultural levels, suggesting it has an important role to play in the evolution and health of Western society. In this article, we explore 5 ways that music promotes healing and well-being, expanding the understand of music and its role in our lives.
“I Make Content, not Art!”How we Traded Deep Musical Experience for Consumerism, and How to Revert the Trend.
Today, music is often considered ‘content’, used to satisfy social media algorithms and streaming platforms. This modern development not only affects musicians ability to earn, but devalues many of the traditional views of music used for health, social cohesion, and spiritual development. In this article, we explore the development of music since the Enlightenment, suggesting that the role of music in the West has drastically changed with modernity. The article offers ways to bring our intuitions about music back into harmony with the most pressing issues of our times, offering a new vision of music’s function based upon an understanding of the past.
The Soul of Percussion: Crafting Life Stories through Rhythm
Summary
Music is a personal experience that often changes the way we view life, and for some, it’s part of a deeper purpose that guides interactions, experiences, and goals. That was the case for Vincent Sebastian, as he recounts the funny, insightful, and painful experiences that have developed through his passion and dedication to music, and in particular, his love for rhythm and the conga drum. This love for music enabled vast travels, mysterious synchronicities, uplifting performances, and meetings with strange and eccentric peoples from all walks of life. His exploration to find the ‘soul of percussion’ has crafted a life story that guides his choices and continuously opens new pathways for rich and meaningful experiences. Through his story, we experience the role and effects of music from those immersed and afflicted from the inside.
The Multi-Sensory Nature of Music Rituals
It is well-known that music affects our emotions, alters our states of being, and is used to treat various diseases from Alzheimer’s, trauma, pain, to Parkinson’s (Levitin 2024). Yet, we often forget that the context in which music is experienced is critical to the successful outcomes of music as therapy. This article argues that music is most powerful when considered within the context in which it is experienced, a holistic practice known as ‘music ritual’. Music rituals use a variety of methods- aural, kinaesthetic, conceptual, olfactory, visual, psychological to create an immersive environment where music can have the most impact.
Music as Life Philosophy: 10 Ways Music teaches us to Live Better.
How does music help us live better? Many musicians adopt an approach to life that is based upon the lessons they learn through their music practice. Music, apart from being a series of organised sounds, can also serve as a philosophy for life that hones our skills and perspectives. This article explores ten core ways that music can be used as a philosophy for living, providing life skills that are transferable into other domains.
The Evolution of Consciousness Through Music
How can music help us uncover our highest potential? This article explores this question through the lens of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Largely misrepresented, recent studies suggest that Maslow’s highest human value was not self-actualisation (an expression of personal potential and ego) but self-actualisation, an experience beyond the ego through peak experience and communion with others. Music contributes to these higher goals by offering access to higher states, such as ‘flow’ described by Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi. Musical flow states offer a way participate in higher human ideals, moving beyond selfishness, egotism, and conformity to contribute to the evolution of human potential, health, and development.
Modern Music Rituals: What are they and why do we need them?
What are music rituals and how do they differ between cultures? This article explores the traditional role of rituals, initiations, and cults, exploring their customary symbols, metaphors, and processes. It suggests that music rituals are aspects of most cultures, including in Australia, where ritual symbols and processes are expressed through performances, such as electronic music events, to produce experiences of transformation and transcendence.
The Spiritual Quest of Art: Music as Symbol of Consciousness
What is the role of music and art in our society ? This article explores the different ways we create music and art, suggesting a distinction between utilitarian and symbolic art that has a powerful effect on culture. The article maintains that music created as symbol is an expression of the consciousness of the artist and culture, and provides greater benefit for the society because it enables the deep contemplation of universal archetypes that develop and evolve us and our communities.
Beyond the Personal Self
How can music be used to create connection, enhance community cohesion, and increase social health ?
In this article we explore music improvisation, and how it enables us to move beyond our personal sense of self to envision a holistic musical experience.
