  Music Has Always Made Us Feel Better. Can Tech Help the Healing? Spotify's mood playlists and music therapy-informed apps are the latest context-based listening tools. But do they work? By Luke Ottenhof
The comedian Martin Mull once said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," and it's since become a sort of refrain from artists and critics to express this sentiment: It's utterly futile to try to describe music and how it works. The quote scratches at the mysterious mechanics of music. Why does it make us feel happy or sad? How do we quantify our subjective perceptions of music? How do we describe sound?
In reality, some of these questions have clear answers; some do not. But music, and how we perceive and engage with it, is steadily at the top of our curiosities. Spotify's mood-oriented or "context-based" playlists, which sort songs according to emotional or physical states, are wildly popular. Collections include Rage Beats, Happy Vibes, and Life Sucks.
It's not entirely clear how Spotify sorts according to mood; does the algorithm file by tempo, or timbre, or vocal style, or key, or all of these criteria and more? What is apparent is that listeners are seeking out experiences based on mood, and perhaps even looking to regulate their mood with music.
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Minggu, 26 Juli 2020
Music Has Always Made Us Feel Better. Can Tech Help the Healing?
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