Sometimes known as the universal language, music is a power to be reckoned with. This hearing pleasure has evolved into one of people's most enjoyable senses. Scientifically, how and why has music impacted humans the last million or so years? Music impacts humans via psychological and physical means, that have shaped music into a strong evolutionary trait. Also, how people define and listen to music is directly related to those psychological and physical affects.

The first step in the research of music is to find out how people define music. What separates music from other insignificant sounds is somewhat unclear. Only higher levels of abstraction and generalizations separate acoustic communication speech and music (Falussy). However the amount of structure and organization is not the only determinant. Simple tribal chants and half-spoken singing are generally considered musical. This shows that the social context of sound may determine whether or not a composition is regarded as music. An interesting phenomenon occurs with listeners of computer generated compositions. These compositions are either design by computer or based off human crafted songs, only translated to the pure tones and perfect rhythm. The excessive repetition in the overtones of these compositions revokes the listener's classification of it as music (Nettl). Good examples of these computer compositions are musical files known as MIDIs. These gray dividing lines in music show that there are no single aspects of music that make humans enjoy and benefit from it.

In order to fully understand what music is, an analytic definition is needed to lessen the influence of our human intuition. Music's known structure is made up of four main elements. Melody is defined as the rhythmically organized and meaningful successions of musical notes and tones that relate to each other. Harmony is the vertical aspect of music, stressing the structure functions and relationships of chords. Rhythm is the grouping and balancing of various stresses and tone lengths in relation to an underlying steady succession of beats. And last, counterpoint is the combination of several individual melodic lines into a single musical fabric (Gillespie 15). When these aspects combine, and only if they combine, does music result. The only exception to this was mentioned before, the Social context of a composition. For example, rap music lacks melody, harmony, and counterpoint, however the content of the "music" intrigues the listeners and affects their classification. These aspects of music must occur simultaneously. When in place in a Composition these aspects act as a network adding structure and themes. These themes link all variations and add to repetition (Nettl). By separating music into its analytic parts, music becomes more than something people simply feel, it is now something that can be dissected and derived.

One of the large separations between music and all other sounds is how people listen to it. Listening to music is like reading in that each note serves as a point of reference for previously heard notes and future tones in the melody (Kahn). Music has been found to be linked very closely to speech. The intonation of speech and text (enunciation) is extremely similar to the tonal qualities of music. For example the change in pitch while asking a question can be translated to notes and tones and giving listeners a guide through the music (Falussy). Because the process of listening to music is very different than other types of listening, (listening to a conversation, etc.) the act of listening can help to define music.

Music does more than simply pleasure the sense of hearing. This rhythmical experience also affects the physical body. The human affinity of rhythm in music is thought to be biologically based. The rhythm in music extends beyond its musical context to guide the rhythms that regulate many of the systems in our bodies. These rhythmic responses in our bodies are not confined to merely the tapping of feet to the beat and nodding. These rhythmic responses can occur in any part of the body including the respiratory system and heart (Kahn). This means our bodies will naturally tend to synchronize with the sounds and rhythms in music (Lo). This supports why fast-paced music has dancing and active behaviors associated with it, and low pace music is meant for relaxation. Experts in relaxation music say we feed our auditory senses with music between 60 and 90 beats per minute, because this is the ideal heart rate for relaxation (Lo). In fact, the first music people here is before they're born. This music is the heartbeat of the mother which is the only sense people experience because there's little to taste, smell, or see ("Why Do We…"). The other physical affect of music is its overall relaxation affect on humans. Young infants are stimulated by the visual stimuli they are interested in, and calmed by musical stimuli they are interested in. Because our social environment has not saturated infants they can show true physical and emotional human reactions better than aged subjects can. These infants show that music (regardless of pace) preoccupies mind with simple and easier thoughts, which in turn relax them (Lo).

Along with affecting our bodies physically, music also plays a great deal in our psychology and neurology. Finding out why people have an irresistible tendency to group uniform successions of sound is the first step to understanding why people like music (Kahn). As mentioned before, even fast-paced music fills the mind with simple and easy thoughts, which relax people (the experiment on infants). This relaxation can improve the focus and concentration and therefore improve the tasks people perform. Tests all over the world have confirmed that music has a strong relationship to multiple intelligences. A study done on first graders who were taught folk music scored significantly higher on reading math and science tests (Lo). Another test done with 104 people communicating with background music found that short-term memory was improved compared to no music. The relaxation caused by music enabled these people to concentrate better on the communication; or the music in the background could be adding to the minds references for its memory (i.e. Instead of the mind remembering only the words, it remembers the words combined with music which could better identify these memories) (Blood). The brain areas involved during listening and performing music are hearing, recall, and memory. This provides more proof that music causes an increase in activity in the sections of the brain due to the ability to concentrate better. Listening and composing music increases activity to these areas and therefore develops them. This is why experiments show that people who listen to music more often, improve their spatial skills (which are tasks like doing a maze, or estimating area and volume) which use these same brain areas (Lo).

Because music is so universally enjoyed, it implies that there is a large evolutionary advantage associated with music. The act of listening to music increases the blood flow to the brain. This increase in blood flow acts in a similar manner as weight lifting, it develops and strengthens the hearing portion of the brain. This could mean better and more accurate hearing which would definitely act as an evolutionary trait (Lo). Another advantage of music is its affect during physical activity. The Colorado High School Athletics Association has outlawed music in sports because it is an artificial accelerant (i.e. cross-country runners are not permitted to listen to music because it increases their speed). For reasons probably involving the synchronization of our bodies to the music, increases people's physical abilities. Musicians also experience what could be considered an evolutionary advantage due to music. It was found that musicians had dramatically more accurate timing, (internal chronometer) than non-musicians. More accurate timing in humans could mean better coordination, which could give that person an advantage over others (Falussy). The concepts involving evolutionary advantages do not necessarily apply to the modern world, but are instead centered on thousands and millions of years in the past. This is because in the past, the environment was different; for example their diet consisted of what ever they could kill, not what was on sale at the market. All of the other four senses that humans contain an evolutionary advantage associated with the sense's pleasure (i.e. good taste implies better nutrition, etc.). Therefore it is highly probable that music, as our hearings pleasure, also has as an evolutionary advantage associated with it ("Why Do We…").

The whole concept of music is hard to understand because of the strength of our human intuition. People "just like music," and have a difficult time understanding why. The impact of music on humans is an in-depth study involving its evolutionary advantages, the physiological and psychological effects, and the listening process. As a person listens to music, little do they realized, but they are actually exercising their hearing, calming their mind and body; but most importantly they are enjoying it.