• Music bridges cultural gaps, uniting listeners worldwide after COVID-19 isolation. • AI-generated songs and chatbots highlight music’s power to connect beyond words. • Artists like Rosalía and Bad Bunny showcase multilingual performances that resonate globally. • Historical debates by Darwin, Spencer, and Longfellow question music’s evolutionary origins. • Comparative Musicology explores cross-cultural evidence of music’s universal appeal. • Music may serve as humanity’s antidote to the inhumanity of the AI era.
Article Summaries:
- Patrick E. Savage’s new book Comparative Musicology (2026) revisits long‑standing questions about whether music is a universal human trait. Drawing on cross‑cultural and cross‑species data, the author argues that music’s role in bonding people is still debated, especially in an era dominated by AI‑generated songs and deep‑fake music. Historical figures such as Longfellow, Darwin and Spencer speculated on music’s origins, but modern analyses-like a 2024 study of 121 societies-show musical diversity largely independent of genetic or linguistic histories. Savage’s work highlights that while music can unite people after COVID‑era isolation, its universality remains scientifically unsettled.
Sources: