Q: What do ‘digital drug’ teens have in common with ancient Greek philosophers?
A: Both believe in the secret power of sound to change our brains.
First, these teens…
In the last few weeks, reports have been popping up everywhere about a new craze among the iPod generation – ‘i-dosing’ – listening to music designed to get kids ‘high’. It’s based on the musical illusion of binaural beats. But the makers of these digital drugs have been claiming that listening to these audio clips will create the same effect as taking illegal narcotics.
If the concept sounds silly, the media’s coverage of it has been even sillier:
The idea that certain sounds can mess with our brains isn’t a new one. Far from it. Time for some ancient Greek philosophy…
Back in Plato’s time, songs could be played in a variety of different musical modes, kind of like how we use major and minor. Each different mode evoked a slightly different emotion for an ancient Greek listener, just like the major mode sounds “happy” and the minor mode sounds “sad” to us. But Plato and other philosophers believed music could affect more than just emotions. They thought these different modes would affect mental states and behaviours. Listening to one mode would mold their youths into intelligent warriors, while another would make them lazy drunks. Sound familiar? Some things never change.
If you’re wondering what Plato had to say about it, here’s some of his dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, from the third book of The Republic. They’re deciding which musical modes would create a nation of intelligent warrior teens:
We said we did not require dirges and lamentations in words.
We do not.
What then, are the dirgelike modes of music? Tell me, for you are a musician.
The mixed Lydian, he said, and the tense or higher Lydian, and similar modes.
These, then, said I, we must do away with. But again, drunkenness is a thing most unbefitting guardians, and so is softness and sloth.
Yes.
What, then, are the soft and convivial modes?
There are certain Ionian and also Lydian modes that are called lax.
Will you make any use of them for warriors?
None at all, he said, but it would seem that you have left the Dorian and the Phrygian.
Socrates then goes on to explain that the Dorian mode instills a sense of courage, while the Phrygian mode promotes thoughtfulness. If only it were that easy to change our behaviour! Then again, there’s always the Mozart effect…
A note for our music nerds out there – even though the modes Plato mentions have the same names as modes we use today (Lydian, Dorian, Phrygian), these ancient Greek modes sounded nothing like them. Medieval music theorists confused matters by misnaming and misinterpreting the ancient Greeks!
If you’re interested, you can find out a little more about ancient Greek music here.
Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
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