Why we sing

Recently, our producer Justine Paradis noticed something. Humans really like to sing together in groups: birthday parties, sports games, church hymns, protest chants, singing along to Taylor Swift at the Eras concert… the list could get very long.

But… why? Did singing play a part in human evolution? Why does singing together make us feel so good?

Featuring Hannah Mayree, Ani Patel, Dor Shilton, and Arla Good. 

For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

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LINKS

Bobby McFerrin in 2009 at the World Science Festival, demonstrating the intuitive power of the pentatonic scale, and in 2010, improvising in a stadium in Germany with 60,000 singers.

A short documentary about Sing For Your Life! and OneVoice Circle Singers.

Check out Hannah Mayree’s music and work.

Dor Shilton and Ani Patel collaborated on a paper (currently preprint) examining four societies where collective music-making is rare.

Dor Shilton’s paper on the evolution of music as an “interactive technology” and open-access analysis of patterns in group singing.

This journal presented the hypothesis of music as a mechanism for social bonding as part of an ongoing conversation. 

SingWell’s forthcoming research on group singing, aging, and Parkinson’s disease.

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