What do aliens, apes, and orchestras all have in common? Professor Michael Spitzer explains how they each help us understand the origins of music.
Humans are not the only species with music, but we are the only ones who had to make music completely from scratch.
According to Michael Spitzer, Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool, humans are not inherently musical. In fact, we come from a lineage less musically inclined than birds or even insects. This means that when it comes to our musical abilities, we had to rely on both cultural and biological evolution to make music a fundamental aspect of human life.
Not to throw a wet towel on a great topic, but TBH "Humans are not inherently musical" is a phrase that makes the value proposition of spending 9 minutes on the video appear low.
I'm trying, and then he says "Humans aren't very musical at all," which is just so obviously not true...
Then he starts into this 'flatlander' nonsense... Reality isn't enough to break his spell.
Then the nonsense that it takes an evolutionary change that allows for an 'excess' of soundmaking to provide foundation to play with sounds...
omg there's an excess of sound possibilities using a coconut for percussion
These sentences taken out of context may seem like nonsense, but I think his explanation makes some sense. However, the video is short and does not go into much detail.