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  3. We blast the upbeat tunes for parties and workouts at the gym, and we save the low-key ballads for romantic or pensive moments.

We blast the upbeat tunes for parties and workouts at the gym, and we save the low-key ballads for romantic or pensive moments.

admin2014-06-25  53
问题     We blast the upbeat tunes for parties and workouts at the gym, and we save the low-key ballads for romantic or pensive moments. It’s hardly a new idea that music is intertwined with our emotions. But how have our favorites changed over the decades, and what do these changes say about America’s shifting emotional landscape?
    Music is a form of naturalistic data that, much like popular television and sales of consumer goods, scientists can sample for insight into our minds and values. Researchers E. Glenn Schellenberg and Christian von Scheve set out to examine songs popular in America during the last five decades, hoping to learn how emotional cues in music, such as tempo(slow to fast)and mode(major or minor key), have changed since 1960.
    The most striking finding is the change in key. Songs composed in a major key tend to sound warm and high-spirited, whereas songs in a minor key can sound darker and more melancholic. Over the last few decades, popular songs have switched from major to minor keys. Broadly speaking, the sound has shifted from bright and happy to something more complicated. It’s important to note, though, that although older songs were frequently in a major key, this didn’t necessarily mean the lyrics were cheerful.
    America’s popular songs have also become slower and longer. Even more interesting, perhaps, is that our current favorites are more likely to be emotionally ambiguous, such as sad-sounding songs being fast or happy-sounding songs being slow.
    Perhaps, the two researchers suggest, today’s listeners are more musically sophisticated. Other researchers in the past have linked music preferences to personality traits, such as a preference for sadder music being tied to more empathy, openness to experience, and less human interactions. Schellenberg and von Scheve also suggest that artists may employ minor keys and compose slower songs to give them an air of maturity. After all, it’s children’s music that is usually happy.
    Another possible explanation for the changes in popular music is that the more contemporary music reflects the hardships and tragedies that our society has endured. However, Schellenberg and von Scheve believe that the steady increase in duration and decrease in tempo that doesn’t support the idea of growing difficulties fully because it would mean our problems have increased steadily over the last fifty years. Perhaps popular songs have become more complex over time because Americans are becoming more diverse and individualized in their musical tastes.
    Though we can only speculate on the specific causes of this evolution in music, we can still view society’s preferences as a metric of the public consciousness. Maybe the reason South Korean tapper PSY’s infectious "Gangnam Style" went viral in 2012 is because we needed a little light-heartedness and a dose of fun in the face of disturbing world events beyond our immediate control. Schellenberg and von Scheve’s initial observations have only opened the door to inquiries on the link between emotion and music consumption. Perhaps someday we’ll learn more of the secrets behind the music we love and the times we live in.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 show that today’s popular songs tend to feature______.
选项 A、brightness and simplicity
B、darkness and pessimism
C、indifference and casualness
D、intricacy and irregularity
答案D
解析 第三段指出，现在的音乐已经由明快转向了复杂(complicated)，第四段进一步指出，现在的流行音乐从情感上更加微妙复杂(emotionally ambiguous)，悲伤的歌曲节奏也可以很快，欢快的曲子节奏也可以很慢。可见，现在的音乐较为复杂、无规律，[D]选项正确。
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