Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. Car alarms, the dishwasher, the ding of a phone, talking and silent breaths. We hear these sounds every single day, but how often do we stop to think about them? How are they truly making an impression in our brain?
Echoic Memory
We remember sound through echoic memory. Echoic memory is a short-term memory that fades within 4 seconds unless repeated. It allows you to remember the last lyrics of a song or that last thing said in a conversation for a few seconds before you begin listening to something else. For example, you know when you ask someone to repeat what they just said and you remember what they said as they begin repeating themself? That’s your echoic memory working! Your brain is retrieving the temporary information and sending it to the auditory cortex, otherwise known as the temporal lobe. But how does this relate to everyday sounds and more importantly, music?
Empathy and Music
Research shows that people who tend to be more empathetic are able to process music differently than people with less empathy. Zachary Wallmark tested this theory by running an fMRI on 20 college students and running music through the headsets. Some of the music was familiar, some genres they didn’t like, and some songs they had never heard before. Afterward, Wallmark asked them if they were an empathetic person or not. The students who were more empathetic responded in a more rewards-based way to music. They had higher activation in the brain and they found music more pleasurable, trying to get a feel for what the songwriter was going through.
So now we have these two concepts of echoic memory (how the brain processes sound) and empathy (how it relates to music). But what about these everyday sounds that we hear? How can these sounds be incorporated into music?
Top Songs Have What?
Finneas O’Connell mentioned on The Tonight Show that Billie Eilish’s music has everyday sounds incorporated into the background. In her song “Bury a Friend,” a recording of a dentist’s drill is used in the background. And in the famous “Bad Guy,” an Australian crosswalk sound is used as well. How can that be? Why would artists put these seemingly random noises into well known and catchy songs?
It’s not just Billie Eilish that uses this technique. Olivia Rodrigo’s hit song “Driver’s License” uses car sounds to introduce the song. Even something as simple as Taylor Swift pausing to talk in her 2012 hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” causes our brain to retrieve from our auditory storage. The Backstreet Boys used Howie Dorough’s fart in the backtrack of their song “The Call.” Flo Rida built an entire chorus around some sneaker sounds in his song “Game Time” ft. Sage the Gemini. These are just a few examples of artists using this method to bring about a crowd. But how exactly does this bring about more fans?
The Connection
Everyday sounds get taken in using the echoic memory and ones that are repeated often make a permanent home in our brain. So when artists incorporate everyday sounds in their music, it actually sends a signal to our brain making a personal connection. So not only do we connect to the lyrics, but we connect to the familiarity of the song even if we don’t know it. That’s the science behind why songwriters often add in these weird sounds. Our brains pick up on it and we naturally get drawn to the song. Think about the top songs right now. I bet that at least half of them use everyday sounds in them.
So why exactly is the empathy study important? Well, the more empathetic we are, the more we can connect with a song. Neither of these techniques is foolproof. Not everyone has the same everyday sounds stored in their brain and not everyone responds empathetically towards music. But the more empathetic you are, the more you are able to not only connect with a song but be present in one. Experiencing empathy while collecting audio through echoic memory creates a stronger bond to music that will help those everyday sounds stand out.
Artists are quite genius to think of incorporating the science behind how our brains work and how they can get the most listeners and fans. Next time you listen to a song, search for that familiarity within it. Is it an everyday sound? Or are you more attuned and empathetic towards the artist? Music is more than just noise. It’s a chaotic mix of epiphanies brought together with the most basic underlying functions of sound.
Works Cited:
Suttie, Jill. “Where Music and Empathy Converge in the Brain.” Greater Good, Mind and Body. October 22nd, 2018. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/where_music_and_empathy_converge_in_the_brain
Law, Angela. “According to Finneas O’Connell, the Sound of a Dentist’s Drill is Hidden in Billie Eilish’s Songs.” PopSugar, Jimmy Fallon The Tonight Show. February 4th, 2020.
Williams, Tennessee. “What is echoic memory and how can it affect us?” Hidden Hearing, Case Studies. May 30th, 2018.
https://www.hiddenhearing.co.uk/blog/2018/what-is-echoic-memory-and-how-can-it-affect-us
Lindner, Emilee. “15 weird sound effects sampled in Pop…” Billboard music. August 23rd, 2017.
EMILY DICKINSON 