Does Music Take Up Too Much Of Our Brain's Memory?

contract

contract

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Dec 28, 2011
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I'm curious to see what everyone's take on this is...

You have prob memorized 1000's of songs, lyrics, beats, etc in your mind over the years.

Think of all that wasted space inside your memory cluttering it up...

I can replicate any artist/song down to the beat/voice chords thinking about it in my head...

Imagine if you never heard any of those songs.

Would you be better at remembering more important things? Like names, places, history, educational works, etc...

....

Is that why the radio plays the same songs on repeat 24/7, over and over, and over. Exposing you to nothing new, but just forcing your brain to memorize something totally useless.

(My point: This type of generic music never expands your creativity or horizons, it's useless. Similar to rap (I like it), but the lyrics themselves don't have any educational value. Today it's even worse, it's all big booty hoes, trash talking, repetitive nonsense. So you can't gain any inspirational value or insights for a moment you have experienced.

I see some songs helping us to better understand and cope with our past situations... But what's on the radio, is FAR from this type of healing.

...

I can understand opera, trance, etc. which opens up your creativity and inspiration..

...

So... Wondering.. What are your general thoughts?

(Also: Does anyone know of any studies where a person didn't listen to music for over 1 year or something, and they compared memory/learning ability before and after?)
 


Lets assume the brain to a computer. Multiple system calls are made and processes are running when you are working; multi-tasking is an inbuilt human feature. Sometimes you tend to get into a state of deadlock. And one needs to get out of it to continue with life. Music is my deadlock recovery strategy. Put on a good pair of headphones, darken the room and listen to some Porcupine Tree or John Mayer or whatever while lying down or sitting in a comfortable position. Slowly, everything else is shut down, except that part of your brain that is responsible for emotional happiness. Once you're done, it feels like someone ctrl + alt + delete => end task'd all of your unwanted processes. Now you're focused, rejuvenated and prepared to kick some ass!

This is why sportsmen always listen to music before entering the pitch or court.

Thereby concluding that music isn't a waste of space. Like everything in life, it requires an up-limit on the storage. As in, moderation.
 
Before we are to determine if the space is wasted, we need to know just how much space there is. I don't think science has gotten to the point of measuring the human brains storage capacity with any certainty.

Came across this though:

The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage.
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-memory-capacity

Don't think you have to worry about music taking up valuable real estate in your head. Although given the contribution music has made to my life, I don't think I mind all that much.
 
Like watching TV, I stopped listening to the radio and frankly most all music years ago because it's meant for the lowest-common-denominator and had little to offer intellectually.

If a service came along that put good ebooks, articles, or podcasts into musical form then I'd be all over those... Music itself isn't the problem. Just the shitty, idiotic words that accompany it 99.999999999999% of the time.
 
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Music can put you in a "state" that can make you more or less productive, angry, depressed etc. so I would say it can do many things, good and bad.

tumblr_ly3v4uCOTJ1qm2623o1_500.gif
 
For perspective, it would take 35 to 50 ORNL Titan supercomputers to be able to do 1 exaFLOPS, which is the same order of magnitude that it is believed the human brain can do. That is 840 - 1200 cabinets the size of refrigerators.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2zSYGsD5Q"]Titan Super Computer - by Bill Rogers, Executive Producer - YouTube[/ame]

Titan is actually #2 now, since the rank update earlier this month.
 
contract said:
I can replicate any artist/song down to the beat/voice chords thinking about it in my head...
Click to expand...

Don't worry about taking up too much space. The vast majority of popular music is so similar on a structural level that it may as well be the exact same song.

This isn't a slam, because I like a lot of music, and I get different things out of different kinds of music, but most of this stuff is just rearranging the same tropes in a very slightly different order. It's not a lot of data.

Like, you know, I didn't have to waste any space on "Blurred Lines", because I already have a file for this:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM=embed[/ame]
 
lukep said:
Like watching TV, I stopped listening to the radio and frankly most all music years ago because it's meant for the lowest-common-denominator and had little to offer intellectually.

If a service came along that put good ebooks, articles, or podcasts into musical form then I'd be all over those... Music itself isn't the problem. Just the shitty, idiotic words that accompany it 99.999999999999% of the time.
Click to expand...

It's a shame you haven't yet realized life isn't all about self actualization and intellectual advancement but also about enjoying the simplest of things in everyday life.

If something is of lowest common denominator by your definition it doesn't mean it will pull you down to that level just by enjoying it.
 
contract said:
I'm curious to see what everyone's take on this is...

You have prob memorized 1000's of songs, lyrics, beats, etc in your mind over the years.

Think of all that wasted space inside your memory cluttering it up...
Click to expand...

LOL. Unless you're Homer Simpson it isn't going to be a problem for you.

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lukep said:
Like watching TV, I stopped listening to the radio and frankly most all music years ago because it's meant for the lowest-common-denominator and had little to offer intellectually.
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It sounds like you're just talking about the middle-of-the-road music industry pop, which obviously isn't made to be intellectually stimulating - although if you care to look you will find plenty of music that is.

lukep said:
If a service came along that put good ebooks, articles, or podcasts into musical form then I'd be all over those....
Click to expand...

That sounds like a really shitty service. 8K post maybe?
 
pick a song you love, let it play and try to memorize a poem for example. imprint it on the song. when you get stuck while reciting the poem, think of the song. itll come back.

its amazing how awesome the brain is. you just need to figure out how it works.
 
JoseArmando said:
Mnemonics don't make you use more memory. It only helps you use it more efficiently.
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This is correct. People aren't aware of the vast quantities of information that their brain takes in constantly.

As you point out - mnemonics is really just memory management. It allows you to be able to access with 100% certainty a 'saved' memory by giving you an index by which to find it and keep it in order.

The interesting thing about doing memory exercise is that your natural recall ability increases by a ridiculous amount too... to the point where you eventually start developing a 'photographic' type memory - you are able to recall stored information instantly without "indexing" it.

It's a fascinating subject and one which you can see first hand positive results from in very little time at all.
 
lukep said:
Like watching TV, I stopped listening to the radio and frankly most all music years ago because it's meant for the lowest-common-denominator and had little to offer intellectually.

If a service came along that put good ebooks, articles, or podcasts into musical form then I'd be all over those... Music itself isn't the problem. Just the shitty, idiotic words that accompany it 99.999999999999% of the time.
Click to expand...
+rep

Memory is not your problem. Conditioning is. Most of you have no idea, how fucked up you get by listening and knowing all these songs. If thoughts have power, how much power does it have when its constantly repeated and said out loud?
 
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