A study in China used fMRI technology to test this hypothesis on 18 male participants.

Researchers in China have used fMRI technology to test the hypothesis that the pleasure derived from art music is intellectual while the pleasure of popular music is physiological. “This study gives clear neuronal evidences supporting the view that artistic music is of intelligence and social cognition,” the study by Ping Huang, Hanhua Huang, Qiuling Luo and Lei Mo found, “while the popular music is of physiology.”

In the study – published in the online journal PLOS one under the title The Difference between Aesthetic Appreciation of Artistic and Popular Music: Evidence from an fMRI Study – 18 male participants between the ages of 18 and 24 listened to musical excerpts while in an fMRI machine. While the participants had all engaged in some form of musical training or activities, none of them were professional musicians.

^{The Chinese study compared the responses to popular (A) versus artistic (B) music}

The participants heard excerpts of art music – in this case opera – pop music and control excerpts. Both the pop and opera samples were snipped from...