Evolutionary psychologists, anthropologists, neurologists and various other ologist-types have been trying to figure out the meaning of music in terms of human utility for some time:
- Darwin proposed that traits found attractive in courtship would enable their owners to get more genes into the next generation. The upshot would be the emergence of adornments that had no immediately obvious survival value in themselves, like the peacock's tail or the troubadour's ballads.
Darwin's ideas about music have been extended by Dr. Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Miller notes their potency in pointing to the opportunities open to popular musicians for transmitting their genes to the next generation. The rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, for instance, had "sexual liaisons with hundreds of groupies, maintained parallel long-term relationships with at least two women, and fathered at least three children in the United States, Germany, and Sweden. Under ancestral conditions before birth control, he would have fathered many more," Dr. Miller writes.
Why on earth would nubile young women choose a rock star as a possible father of their children instead of more literary and reflective professionals such as, say, journalists? Dr. Miller sees music as an excellent indicator of fitness in the Darwinian struggle for survival. Since music draws on so many of the brain's faculties, it vouches for the health of the organ as a whole. And since music in ancient cultures seems often to have been linked with dancing, a good fitness indicator for the rest of the body, anyone who could sing and dance well was advertising the general excellence of their mental and physical genes to a potential mate.
"Music evolved and continues to function as a courtship display, mostly broadcast by young males to attract females," Dr. Miller writes in "The Origins of Music," a collection of essays by him and others. [NY Times]
So Hendrix did it for the nookie - interesting theory. I think in the case of a genius like Hendrix, the nookie was a perk rather than a prime motivator. I certainly noticed my access to prime booty went up when I started performing in rock bands in high school (but it went up even more when I had notable success in baseball), nothing unusual there.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
How in the hell did I miss this Hendrix release? I didn't see *anything* about this anywhere! I love the Band of Gypsies material, maybe more than the Experience material at times . . . (blasphemer!)
As for the "did it all for the nookie" idea, I'd like to see how this applies to something like King Crimson . . . they certainly don't have a problem keeping the groupies away from the tour bus . . .
2 - Eric Olsen
Yes, with Mitchell and Cox it's kind of the Jimi Hendrix Band of Experience. The nookie postulate addresses the evolutionary reasons for music - I don't think it's held up as a direct cause and effect, although I'll bet Robert Fripp gets more noticed by women than if he didn't play guitar.
3 - Taloran
One of the reasons adolescents pick up the guitar or the saxophone or the Hammond and join a rock'n'roll band is to be accepted by their peers, in other words "cool." (At least, that's one of the reasons I did it in my youth.) Since the cool are generally more desirable and visible than the uncool, it follows that a cool musician (or athlete, or class president, etc.) is going to attract more attention from those he/she finds carnally desirable than the loner, the PS2 enthusiast or the chess club member.
Once the adolescent realizes that a particular activity is attracting attention, he/she is likely to continue to participate in that activity in the furtherance of his/her sexual desires. The upshot is, Hendrix knew that his reputation as the greatest guitarist in the world (whether or not he actually was - he deferred to Phil Keaggy) got him laid, and he made the most of it.
4 - JR
King Crimson would be the "control" sample: if they're not getting groupies, then it must not be musical ability that's attracting the women. (Well, we'd probably need more data; I wouldn't want to generalize about anything using only King Crimson as an example.)
Anyway, I'm not sure how seriously to take this Dr. Miller. It's seems to me a more obvious reason Hendrix got lots of action would be because he was rather famous (as opposed to, say, King Crimson). I mean, actors get girls too, and what worthwhile genes do they have to pass on?
The other problem I have with the sexual selection explanation is that music appeals to members of both sexes; in fact, from what I've seen Hendrix's is more popular with men than with women. HE may have been attractive to girls, but his music is attractive to guys.
And this theory about musicians "drawing on so many of the brain's faculties" is interesting in light of all these retrospective IQ estimates of famous historical figures. Invariably the writers (low nookie factor) rank higher than the musicians (high nookie factor). But then, those IQ estimates are almost certainly bogus.
My theory (at least for this week) on why music sounds good is that it's a side-effect of our developing intelligence. We evolved an ability to recognize complex patterns, maybe because it helped us develop language among other things. We're evolved to look for patterns, motivated by that pleasurable reaction of "A-ha!" when we find them. And what is music but patterns?
Which means that maybe musical appreciation is just an accident of evolution; it has no use whatsoever.
And wouldn't that make it even sweeter?
5 - Tom Johnson
Off topic, but relevant to Taloran's comment concerning the "Hendrix defers to Keaggy" issue - it's a myth, as dispelled by the know-it-alls at Snopes.com. See http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/keaggy.htm for the full groovy. It may really have been ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons he was giving praise to, but we'll never know for sure . . .
6 - Tom Johnson
7 - Phillip Winn
The story according to Phil:
It has also been rumored that what Hendrix actually said was that Keaggy was the shortest guitar player in the world. ;-)
8 - Taloran
Well, smack my ass and call me Sally. I've heard that story about Hendrix deferring to Keaggy for bloody ages. I guess I'm guilty of that cardinal sin, spreading unsubstantiated rumor. My apologies to everyone who reads my previous post.
9 - Tom Johnson
Sally, I think we'll all forgive you . . . as long as you let us smack that ass.
10 - Eric Olsen
T, I mean Sally, when I asked Daniel Pecchio (of the Glass Harp) about it, he said it could have happened on a live TV interview show (maybe Dick Cavett?) that wasn't taped (of course), but there wasn't any evidence either way.
Re the meaning of music: I have always been smitten by philosopher Susanne Langer's theory that the structure of music mirrors the structure of our emotions, and our recognition of that triggers our pleasure and awe. This seems right to me.
11 - Al Barger
We might steer away from anthropology and also recognize that there are different motivating factors for becoming a musician.
However, most singers, even one so cerebral as Paul Simon, will tell you they started playing music to attract girls.
Then again, that's a big part of why guys do most things we do. See James Brown "It's a Man's World."
This is a man's world
But it ain't worth nothing, NOTHING
Without a woman or a girl
12 - Taloran
Ahh.... so, while there's no evidence that Hendrix actually said that about Keaggy, there's no indelible evidence to the contrary. Hendrix was a very wise guy - he knew the roots of his music and paid obvious musical homage to his artistic forebears. I was never surprised by the "deference to Keaggy" legend - I think I'll remain non-committal about it.
13 - The Theory
It is, however, a fact that hendrix was a keaggy fan. we just don't know what the hell he said about him.
14 - Eric Olsen
Another rumor has it that it was a groupie who said Phil was better than Jimi
15 - They
Hendrix played the guitar not because of women, men or for any gain other than he had to. You hear stories of him being at parties and sitting in the corner playing to a bunch of people. He doesn't have to. Why? Because everyone there loves worships him anyway and thinks he is very groovy, hip, cool.
So, basically he can have any woman and woo men too even though he wasn't into that but what he did was play and play some more because he would have gone mad otherwise.
I heard he took it to bed with him too, funny, one or two of his groupies had singed hair the morning after??
16 - They again
ps. Who is this Eric Clapton? Is he famous? The guy from Cream was in the 3rd division when Jimi hendrix was in la liga and he was the closest challenge (apparently).