Big Think
@bigthink·8.8M subscribers·10.1K videos
Hey Bill Nye, 'What Makes Music so Human and so Powerful?' #TuesdaysWithBill | Big Think
Posted
May 10, 2016
Views
37,822
Likes
835
Comments
114
Engagement
May 10, 2016
37,822
835
114
2.51%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
2:02Now Playing'What Makes Music so Human and so Powerful?' #TuesdaysWithBill
Watch the newest video from Big Think
Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is called the universal language — music — yet speakers of different languages prefer different genres. Cultures that communicate using tonal languages, for example, have markedly different musical traditions than western languages. Yet the primacy of music across so many distinct human cultures suggests a deeply embedded drive to create it — and groove to it. In this video, Bill Nye talks science, culture, and musical notation.
Recalling his college psychology classes (Mr. Nye is a career engineer, but sometimes we like to throw him a curve ball), the Science Guy knows that dogs respond to octaves, defined as the doubling of the pitch frequency. So certain qualities of music that are also found in speech affect behavior in natural ways, which also suggests that musical qualities are buried deep in our evolutionary history.
Responding to Big Think fan Aiden, from California, Bill Nye does what he has done throughout his career as a popular science educator: encourage young people to be diligent in their studies, whether the subject is science or music. So if you want to get to Carnegie Hall, it is going to take a lot of practice. After all, refining millions of years of evolutionary forces and expressing it through a string or a brass tube is not easy. And if you want to play jazz, make sure you include a major seventh cord (which is not bad musical knowledge for an engineer).
Ultimately, says Bill Nye, whatever drives us to create music is so deep within us it must serve a very basic purpose. And what purpose is more basic, more fundamental, than procreation? Likely none, and there is likely no greater purpose belonging to music, evolutionarily speaking, than to bring people close together — very close together.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle's home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live." This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®" was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate. While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children's books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs." Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries" airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye" airs on PBS stations across the country. Bill's latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens." It's about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you'll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There's also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It's fun for him; he's an engineer with an energy conservation hobby. Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
Aides: Hey Bill Nye, Aiden from California. I'm a musician, a songwriter, and I really would like to know what makes music so human and powerful in its nature? Thank you.
Bill Nye: Well Aiden, as you know I know everything. I don't know why but it sure is deep within us. Now, I remember when I was in school people in psychology class talked about dogs responding to octaves, that is the doubling of the frequency. And so there may be something to that that there are natural resonances that appeal to us that have something to do with our voices. I mean I'm not an expert on this but I've .....
To read the transcript, please go to
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
