People often say that music is "the language of the whole world", but is there really a * * * between different music forms all over the world? Recently, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) made a statistical analysis of music samples from all over the world, which provided us with more detailed answers.

There are still many controversies about the universality of music. Some scholars have summed up many similar beat and tone characteristics for music of different cultures, while skeptics will say that there is no universal law for these music except that people all over the world are playing music. In this study, researchers from the University of Exeter and Tokyo University of the Arts systematically collected different styles of music samples from nine regions of the world for the first time, and analyzed and compared them in many aspects.

In the research, 304 music recordings were collected from North America, Europe, Middle East, East Asia, South America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. In addition to national music with local characteristics, the researchers also incorporated some modern music produced in the recording studio to make the music styles as diverse as possible. In the analysis, they selected 32 indicators such as melody, rhythm and performance form.

Collection places of various music samples. The picture comes from the original paper.

The analysis results show that although there is no absolute consistency between these music, there are indeed many statistical similarities between them. Some of them are easy to observe, for example, performers often play in groups, using vocal music and instrumental music at the same time and singing meaningful lyrics. The other is the inherent law of music theory. For example, there is music with a beat of 2 or 3 times in all nine sampling areas. In addition, most of these music forms scales with discontinuous pitches, and the number of notes in an octave does not exceed 7. They tend to use falling or arched "melody contours" and use synchronous beats. Among the 32 indicators, 18 is statistically universal. In addition, the researchers also found the common connection between some characteristics, such as percussion always appears at the same time as group performances.

Dr Thomas Currie of the University of Exeter said: "Our findings help to explain why people create music. The results show that the most musical features in the world are related to the factors that make people coordinate their actions. This shows that one of the main functions of music is to bring people together and form social groups, which can become a "social adhesive". In western culture, we sometimes think that music is a form for individuals to express themselves and show their talents, but from a global perspective, music is more like a social phenomenon. "

Pat Savage, the author of the paper, said: "In the past, Westerners thought that the scales of western music were universal, but later we realized that other cultures had completely different ideas about scales, which led some people to come to the conclusion that' music has no * * *'. But now our research shows that under the seemingly great diversity, many music in the world actually have very similar basic elements and functions. "

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