Nicolas has really stated what i believe to be the overriding driving force
behind music. Call it to scientific if you must but I really believe this is
the governing principle.
Our brain is composed of millions of neurons. While we may share some
basic wiring in common, most experts in neuroscience agree that the majority of
connexions between neurons are formed as a result of experience rather than
genetics. Now experience in this context really refers to any sensory input,
like mom jumping up and down when you're a fetus not just life trauma etc.
However I think this serves to illustrate the numerous different ways the
wiring in your brain can be fine tuned.
Now a song is really a wave pattern generated electrically (in the case
of stereos), passed through acoustic vibration and retranslated into electrical
impulse in your brain. Each neuron conveys electrical impulses through
modulating the periodicity and intensity of its firing pattern (sound
musical?). I believe the temporal pattern of the song would interact
differently with the different wiring schemes found in different peoples brains
producing a different associations and finally different emotional perception.
Thus you have musical taste.
>>I cannot even judge the quality of a music based on its
complexity, since some minimalism might just be there to put more weight on
a pattern or another...
Minimalism brings up another interesting point. Is complexity just
the arrangement of sounds or can it encompass the arrangement of silences as
well? I think it was actually George Michael back in the faith days who said
something about funky music involving careful placement or silences
(paraphrased of course).
-- Mark Bowen mb@gettins.bche.uic.edu"The universe," said [the devil], "is a Ph.D thesis that God was unable to successfully defend." -James Morrow