Last week we caught an interesting story on antiMusic (no relation, kindly). A pair of researchers at the University of Wisconsin have been working to learn more about how human music may have come about, by experimenting with monkeys, and playing them music by Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, and Tool.
The researchers recorded a series of “monkey songs” made with monkey noises, incorporating features commonly heard in monkey calls, such as rising and falling tones. They played these songs for a group of tamarin monkeys, and then they also played music by classical musician Samuel Barber, a track from The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails, Of Wolf And Man by Metallica, and The Grudge by Tool.
The Guardian reported that it was Metallica that the monkeys responded to the most, but since we’re big nerds, We got a hold of Charles Snowdon, the researcher and psychologist responsible, to find out a little bit more.
Snowdon told us that his collaborator David Teie of the American National Symphony Orchestra helped select the bands sampled, based on theories of how music affects humans emotionally.
Teie is a cellist who happens to have played with Metallica, hence the considerably pocket-protector-free selection of contemporary samples.
It was a downtempo instrumental track from The Fragile played, and it was considered a sort of control for the classical piece, so that no one could suggest that the real difference was between classical and rock.
When I read that the track from Metallica’s Black Album was the one that the monkeys responded to, it occurred to me that it was the only recording engineered before the introduction of digital “brickwall” limiting, a turning point in the so-called “loudness war.”
However, when I got all audiophiliac on Snowdon, he clarified that the press has been wrong about this detail, and that the monkeys were actually soothed by the heavier songs of both Tool and Metallica.
The research could lead to a rethink of strategies employed by breeders tasked with soundtracking the dirty deeds (a funky job if ever there was one). “Lots of primate research laboratories use radios to provide what is called ‘enrichment’ for their animals, but you can’t expect another species to be interested in our music just because we are human,” Snowdon told The Guardian.
Conducting some independent research, I played Hinder for a chimpanzee at the LA Zoo. He threw feces at me.
They should’ve given those monkeys an opportunity to play Guitar Hero or something, cause that’s what really suits a monkey, and I bet they would enjoy it thoroughly.
They should have played them the monkeys!
Don’t they know listening to The Fragile will warp those little monkey minds? Now we’ll have a bunch of depressed, downward spiralling monkeys to deal with!
How long before a monkey kills another monkey and metal music is blamed as the cause?
Don’t worry, even animals ain’t that stupid… It’s just us, humans, and our pathetic, yet lovely culture.
angels on the sidelines……….all bets are off
slow news day?
yup! and we were preoccupied with the “final” nine inch nails show at the wiltern. review coming today.
the Hinder joke at the end was my favorite part.
I once observed over a few months, that a friend of mine’s iguana wasn’t so fond of most music we put on, but was made quite happy by Kreator’s “Enemy of God” record. also, Vital Remains. Metalest pet ever.
Oh man, this article was so interesting, but I’m all amped up to listen to The Grudge again by TOOL. I love that song!
all signs point to animals liking heavy metal. as if animals needed to be any cooler.
I don’t care what they listen to, as long as they taste good.