Music and Sound

Interesting observation about how we experience sound, and how that relates to our taste in music:

When Sam Swiller used hearing aids, his musical tastes ran to AC/DC and Nirvana — loud bands with lots of drums and bass. But after Swiller got a cochlear implant in 2005, he found that sort of music less appealing.

"I was getting pushed away from sounds I used to love," he says, "but also being more attracted to sounds that I never appreciated before." So he began listening to folk and alternative music, including the Icelandic singer Bjork.

My hearing is impaired -- my left ear hardly works, and it doesn't work at all for deep or high sounds -- I have often wondered if this affects what sort of music I like. But since I like most of the stuff that people around me like, I suspect the social and aesthetic effects are larger.

My second son is the most fantasy-oriented of my children, and the one who most likes Dungeons and Dragons, and he loved Loreena McKennit the first time he heard her, which made me wonder how much different things about our tastes can be wired together in our brains.