Pygmies living without electricity respond to calming or exciting music similarly to people in downtown Montreal. Where the two groups differed was in their range of emotional response.
The Mbenzélé use music to purge negative emotions, so they consistently derive a positive feeling from hearing any music, while the Western tradition by contrast encourages a certain degree of wallowing in negative feelings.
This permits a greater range of artistic expression, but what are the social consequences of music built on anxiety, anger, apathy, or heartbreak? Tempo and timbre activate a physiological response in the listener, but where that energy goes is determined by quite different factors.
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