Why some people don’t like music
There are several reasons why people love music. It improves our mental health by uplifting our moods, reminding us of happy memories, comforting our insecurities, and altering the direction of our mindset. Therefore, the idea that some people don’t enjoy music may appear baffling, but it stretches beyond just casual indifference and stems from an actual scientific reason.
Of course, there may be a number of reasons why someone doesn’t enjoy music – such as neurological factors, genetic differences, emotional associations, and so on, but what we’re more broadly referring to here is something called “musical anhedonia”.
Musical anhedonia actually refers to the inability to experience pleasure or enjoyment from music. Anhedonia, in general, refers to the reduced ability to experience pleasure from activities or stimuli that are typically enjoyable. While many people find music to be emotionally rewarding and pleasurable, those with musical anhedonia do not derive the same positive feelings from listening to music.
Musical anhedonia is a multifaceted and distinct phenomenon, separate from other forms of anhedonia, such as the inability to experience pleasure from food, social interactions, or other activities. It’s a relatively rare condition, and individuals with musical anhedonia can still experience pleasure from other activities.
Put simply: the brain is composed of white matter and grey matter. The grey matter controls processing, while the white matter controls communication. The grey matter interprets information transmitted by the white matter. Researcher Josep Marco-Palleres recently told Science Daily that a new study “shows that musical sensitivity is related to white matter structures”. Therefore, those with musical anhedonia don’t have the same white matter structures that send messages to the grey matter, letting the brain know that the music is pleasurable.
For people with musical anhedonia, it’s less a dislike of music and more an indifference; their brains don’t interpret music as neutral stimuli, meaning that the enjoyment of music just isn’t there for them. As Dr Curtis Reisinger, Professor of Psychology, puts it: “Anhedonia is not really hating music; it’s sort of like [being] blah about music. Music simply does not fry their chicken”.
He adds: “Anhedonia is akin to colourblindness or learning disability. Depressed people don’t derive pleasure from things in life; sometimes it is acquired during or accompanying severe depression.”
At the same time, music can help people with depression, lowering the heart rate and relieving stress. John Head, a therapist at Houston Methodist, says: “Music is so sticky because it interacts with multiple parts of our brain. It can help normalise an otherwise chaotic space like an unfamiliar hospital or a monster encounter. It won’t cure depression or any other condition, but it is a useful tool to help manage the symptoms”. So while music alone won’t get rid of depression entirely, it can still be a vital tool in reducing its intensity.
That said, there can be many additional reasons why someone may not take any enjoyment from listening to music, with musical anhedonia just being one of them. Musical preferences are often influenced by cultural backgrounds, and people who haven’t been exposed to music all that much may just find the whole thing unappealing. Also, just as people have different tastes in food, film, and literature, some people may simply have a preference for other forms of stimulation.
Equally, as we age, our experiences with music may change due to things like hearing loss. “For some people, as we age, some frequencies become more aversive, and you may lose your hearing with higher frequencies,” says Dr Reisinger. “That means that part of the music will not be there for you anymore. You might have loved a song when you were younger and simply become unable to hear it the same way”.
Sometimes, people who once loved listening to music now find no enjoyment in it at all, and it’s not always rooted in something scientific or sinister. For some people, they realise they simply do not feel the same way about it anymore or make the choice to remove it from their lives entirely. “One day, when I was in Italy on vacation, I was listening to music, and I suddenly realised, ‘let’s stop the music’,” explained YouTuber ecofriend.lia. “I took off my headphones, stopped the music, and it felt so good. The space I got in my mind was so much better without music. I don’t want to say listening to music is bad, but I just also want to say that not having any sounds around you can be beneficial as well.”
For many reasons, individual inclinations toward music often run deep and remain inherently subjective. The rationales for not finding enjoyment in music are wide-ranging, and this sentiment doesn’t necessarily preclude the possibility of discovering happiness and satisfaction in other facets of life.
