There’s enough bad things going on in the world today without music inciting us to worse.
I was intrigued this week to read a pair of scientific studies claiming that enjoyment of our favourite music might well have an insidious side effect – the power to make us do something just a little bit wrong.
One paper suggested that music makes us more inclined to take risks, and in particular to gamble. The only upside of this report is that it apparently needs to be music that we like, and so the chance of a pokie lounge or casino taking a chunk out of my pay check by popping on Bach’s B Minor Mass or a quick burst of the Ring Cycle seems a fairly remote possibility.
The other more curious study claims that, subjected to our top tunes, we become considerably more likely to lie, cheat and generally do someone else’s dirty work. This is more insidious. As I sat back and enjoyed Paul Lewis’s Beethoven or the Australian String Quartet premiering a new Matthew Hindson work, I couldn’t help feeling vulnerable. Was I being lulled into a suggestible state of mind where I would willingly say yes to an embezzlement scam or a contract killing? Fortunately I was able to scurry home after the concerts before anyone from Musica Viva tapped me on the shoulder and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Maybe it’s obvious. By putting us in a better mood we become more confident and therefore more likely to take risks. Or maybe it has darker implications. When charming music soothes the savage breast, perhaps the submerged savage comes that little bit closer to the surface. Either way, you’d think there are enough bad things going on in the world today without music inciting us to worse.
