your brain on music

Like many, when I stumble upon good music, I feel that the divine order of life would not continue would I not be able to proselytize my current loves to everyone I see. Thank GOD for the internet. Makes indoctrination so much easier (and more annoying) to reach the masses. So for the past couple of years I have been exploring the world that has opened up to me through Latin artists who would’ve ordinarily escaped my radar (and my radar is pretty international). In any case, I thought it might be fun to make a small introductory post so maybe there might be someone you discover too.

Manu Chao / Mano Negra

Along with his brother and cousin, Manu Chao was a co-founder of Mano Negra, one of the most influential alternative bands to come out of France in the 80s and one that I will forever and ever and ever regret not seeing when they came to my small town when I was studying in France. Mixing rock, ska, punk, reggae, flamenco and raï influences along with singing in Spanish (mostly), French, English and even Arabic, they became legends in Europe and Latin America. Today Manu Chao carries the torch in his solo work, focusing on social and political themes in the Latin world. He is involved with many side projects and happily, continues to play Mano Negra’s music and still incorporates it in his work now.

Mala Vida – Mano Negra

Desaparecido & Rumba de Barcelona

Gustavo Cerati

Cerati is an artist that I have been recently introduced to and is a huge legend in his homeland, Argentina. He was a founder of the 80s alternative group Soda Stereo and were the first Latin group to become successful throughout Central and South America have influenced numerous groups. Since the band broke up in 1997, Cerati has gone on to do much successful solo work. Last year in May, he collapsed on stage due to a stroke during a gig in Venezuela and has remained in a coma ever since.

De Musíca Ligera – Soda Stereo

Perdonar es Divino – Cerati

Juanes

Another South American legend from Colombia. Juanes started out his career in a heavy metal band named Ekhymosis, eventually moving on to rock and pop music. Much of his music is influenced from traditional Colombian folk songs and although fluent in English, insists on singing in his native Spanish since he says it is the language that he thinks and feels in. Juanes is also extremely dedicated to charity work and has taken on the cause of eradicating land mines from his homeland. Also, I am going to see him next week in concert and am so freaking excited about it.

A Dios Lo Pido

Yerbatero

Julieta Venegas

An extremely popular Mexican-American singer from Long Beach, California but grew up in Tijuana, Mexico. Having collaborated with the legendary producer Gustavo Santaolalla who also gave Juanes his start , Julieta sings in Spanish and her music is heavily nuanced with classical Mexican accordion and is very melodic. In concert she also does a mean cover of “Love Cats” by the Cure. She has done a myriad of collaborations including and is a friend of…

Eres Para Mi

Sería Feliz

Ana (Anita) Tijoux

Ok, this girl…. I have not had her off of my iPod since her second album came out last spring. A Chilean rapper originally born in France, her family moved back to Chile after Pinochet had left power. Much of her music deals with personal themes, is inspired by classic hip-hop and first got much attention with her collaboration with Julieta Venegas on “Eres Para Mi”. She has received much critical acclaim for her work and was the second Chilean artist ever to be nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Rock, Alternative, or Urban Album category. Personally, I can’t say enough about her and have been disappointed that I’ve missed a few opportunities to see her last year when she came around promoting the album. (Soon…..)

1977

Gol

Mala Rodríguez

Lastly, in our little tour of Latin music, I’d like to mention Mala Rodriguez. I got introduced to her thanks to Pandora last year and is also another one of the artists that I can’t get off my iPod. I don’t know a ton about her but she is a rapper from Cádiz, Spain and incorporates flamenco influences into her music which includes themes of poverty, racism, domestic violence, and female empowerment. She won a Latin Grammy this year in the category of Best Urban Song and was nominated for Best Urban Album.

Nanai

Volvere

I know that I am missing just volumes of information on some of these artists but I deliberately tried to keep it light with an aim of whetting your appetite, not become an encylopedia (which Wikipedia does so much better). Hopefully you will enjoy discovering these Latin artists (if you already haven’t) and are influenced to seek out more. I’m hoping that with the rise of more Spanish language music making it in the American mainstream, we will see more and more artists continue to break through and enjoy much success in our traditionally English-dominated market.

Music is highly valued across all human societies. The specific sounds vary widely, even within cultures. My mom loves to listen to Gregorian chanting; I’d rather be involved in an automobile accident, but I do love The Strokes. The concept is the same, though: an abstract stimulus invokes a pleasurable response.

So is music a drug? New research published last month in Nature Neuroscience(1) indicates a strong similarity. Drugs, sex, and eating have long been known to produce pleasure by releasing dopamine in the mesolimbic system, commonly thought of as the “reward pathway.” These are tangible stimuli that promote (or, our bodies think they promote) survival. Music, though, is abstract. It feels good to listen, but it doesn’t provide us with safety, nutrition, or reproduction.

To test what neural pathways are engaged during musical enjoyment, researchers first had their test group select their favorite music. A “musical frisson” test was used to identify moments of peak pleasure – if you get “chills” on hearing “DON’T STOP – BELIEVING,” you’re actually experiencing a measurable physiological response.

Brain activity was then measured as subjects listened to their chosen piece. Two types of brain imaging were used: PET scans were used for their precision over time, while fMRIs were used for their neural precision. The results were combined to accurately determine exactly what the brain was doing at what point in the listening experience.

Two different neurochemical responses were discovered. In the anticipatory stage – leading up to the subject’s favorite part of the song – dopamine was released in the dorsal striatum. In previous studies(2), the dorsal striatum has been linked to learning and action selection. Researchers at UPenn have specifically linked it to cocaine cravings in addicts.

During the peak pleasure stages (measured by the musical frission response), dopamine was released in the ventral striatum. A previous study(3) strongly linked the ventral striatum to sensations of euphoria associated with amphetamine use in non-addicted individuals .

This biological parallel between drug use and listening to music makes sense, especially if you’ve ever tried to turn off someone’s favorite song “right at the good part.” Only an addict could respond so violently to a 60-second pleasure delay.

1. Salimpoor, V. N., Benovoy, M., Et. al. (2011, January 9). Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music [Electronic version]. Nature Neuroscience.

2. Volkow, N. D., Wang, G., Et. al. (2006, June 14). Cocaine cues and dopamine in dorsal striatum: Mechanism of craving in cocaine addiction [Electronic version]. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(24), 6583-6588.

3. Drevets, W. C., Gautier, C., & Et. al. (2001). Amphetamine-induced dopamine release in human ventral striatum correlates with euphoria. Biol Psychiatry, 81-96.