What Does Music Do for You?
Chills, comfort, discovery, dancing or company - the five pleasures of music
For some people a song is a shiver down the spine; for others it is a reason to get on the dance floor, a way to calm down after work, or mostly an excuse to be with friends. A team in Barcelona found that the pleasure people take in music breaks into five separate sources, and that people differ a lot in which ones they have. They also found healthy people who enjoy almost nothing about music while enjoying other rewards normally. This test maps your five sources.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about music in your life in general, not about one favourite artist or one unforgettable concert.
What it measures
The five facets of the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire: emotion evocation (being moved), mood regulation (using music to change how you feel), musical seeking (looking for new music and knowledge about it), sensory-motor reward (the urge to move) and social reward (music as a way of bonding). It measures pleasure, not ability: it says nothing about whether you can play, sing or read music.
Based on: Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (Mas-Herrero, Marco-Pallarés, Lorenzo-Seva, Zatorre & Rodríguez-Fornells, 2013)
Possible results
Emotion
Being moved by music - chills, tears, a lump in the throat.
Mood regulation
Using music to calm down, cheer up or keep yourself company.
Musical seeking
Looking for new music and wanting to know more about it.
Movement
The urge to move, dance or keep time when music plays.
Social bonding
Music as a way to feel close to other people.
Common questions
Why doesn't music move me the way it moves other people?
Because the reward people get from music varies far more than we assume. The Barcelona team identified healthy people who felt little pleasure and showed no bodily response to pleasant music, while responding normally to money rewards and perceiving music perfectly well. Researchers call this specific musical anhedonia. It is a variation in how music connects to the reward system, not a disorder and not a sign of coldness.
Is this a test of musical talent?
No. It measures how much pleasure you take from music, not whether you can play, sing or hear pitch accurately. In the musical anhedonia study, the people who enjoyed music least perceived it perfectly normally. The reverse also holds in everyday life: you can be deeply moved by music with no training at all.
Why do some songs give me chills?
Chills often arrive at moments of surprise or build-up - a voice coming in, a sudden change of key or volume. Brain studies link them to the reward system, the same circuitry involved in other pleasures. How often you get them is one of the clearest differences between people on the emotion bar, and it is not something you can force.
Sources
- Mas-Herrero, E., Marco-Pallarés, J., Lorenzo-Seva, U., Zatorre, R. J., & Rodríguez-Fornells, A. (2013). Individual differences in music reward experiences. Music Perception. doi:10.1525/mp.2013.31.2.118
- Mas-Herrero, E., Zatorre, R. J., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., & Marco-Pallarés, J. (2014). Dissociation between musical and monetary reward responses in specific musical anhedonia. Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.01.068
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the published Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire, so scores cannot be compared with its norms. The questionnaire was developed in Spain and later translated; music habits vary a lot with culture and age. Low scores are a normal variation: some healthy people get little pleasure from music while enjoying other rewards normally. If you have lost interest in most things you used to enjoy, not only music, talk to a professional.
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