Words: Sydney Kaster

Image caption: Courtesy of Gül Işık 

1 April

“Yet this interconnector of divine harmony and sonorous body, that is music, remains the one example of shared experience within social spaces that involves creativity, community, language, and sound.”


Sydney Kaster

Music relies on human interaction to build relationships between individuals and groups. It’s how humans understand each other without the barriers of traditional language and spoken word. Music requires the physical body, even in the instrumental form: the ears, the hands, and sometimes the feet and limbs, and in other cases, the tongue, the vocal cords, and the mouth. Sometimes, the whole body is involved, like in dancing. Music is something we listen to and enjoy, or sometimes, we have a strong distaste for it. Can we use it as a way to communicate and grow a community, either through creating music itself or, for example, sharing it from a streaming platform and sending a text to a friend who we think might like it? Are we already using music as a form of connection? And, is it truly a genuine way of building human connections, or are there other methods that are better suited?

Firstly, let us briefly return to the roots of this fine social tool and look at how it has changed over time. Over 40,000 years ago, early humans and Neanderthals used vocalisations to communicate with one another, but evolving breathing capabilities of the jaw and cranium structures led these vocalisations to be more complex, shaping what we can assume was a song-like vocalisation, sprouting the seeds of things like singing and chanting (Montagu 2017). In accordance with these changes in the human body, instruments like pipes and whistles were crafted from animal bones, leading to some of the very first tools for making music, before eventually, more developed instruments like pianos and violins came along. Soon, music became a hallmark of human interaction, turning into a positive group activity that strengthened community bonds, especially within families and closely-knit circles, and even within group tasks, leading us to the birth of work songs, proving the theory that synchronised motions made together form positive social bonds (Montagu 2017; Dunbar 2014). Music is a prime form of human interaction, creating shared swells of emotion between individuals that other means of connection can’t quite spark; it is an intimately spiritual interaction.

Harvard cognitive scientist Dr Samuel Mehr found that music is a feature of every single culture, specifically in terms of danceability and behaviour related to music, further supporting the theory that music can be considered a true builder of bonds between people, especially in a big group setting with many different types of individuals, all with varying interests and backgrounds (Atwood 2019; National Institutes of Health 2023). Music and the relationship it creates between people has been found on every continent, including Antarctica (Metallica 2013), deepening cross-cultural relationships and weaving sacred relationships with meaning and artistic purpose across borders and nations, whether in ancient Greece or modern-day Australia (In The Know 2023). It doesn’t matter where people live, where they come from, or how their day-to-day lives look; music is everywhere and a key part of our human evolution and existence. And now, music has even more capability with things like AI taking over mainstream technology and helping people build all kinds of relationships through it. We have come so far in our understanding and appreciation of music, and now we have these new fronts in creative technology to aid us.

But can AI truly bring people together through music? Can it act as an additional part in fostering human connection? Or, is it something we should tread carefully with? Regardless of our collective position on AI’s involvement in our relationships with music, we are already seeing these advances take shape. For example, take the ABBA Voyage, the virtual live show where all four members of ABBA perform through digital avatars and LED screens (Griffiths 2022). Globally, this phenomenon has become a sell-out, with even the city of London building an official arena for it, allowing people to sing along to their favourite ABBA songs while mesmerised by the projections onstage. Could this be the modern version of how our ancestors grouped up to engage in song and harmony, forming long-lasting social bonds? Is it a modern interpretation of the Greek theatre? It may well be. Concerts and other live events hosted via virtual reality are already becoming commonplace, especially after the Coronavirus pandemic, allowing fans to interact more closely with their favourite performers through platforms like Tiny Desk and the metaverse (Bär 2025).

However, this is evidently a stark contrast to the long-held ancient memory of sitting around a campfire. What would our ancestors think about these advances? And do these shifts represent our collective advancement and ideals of progress? Perhaps in some ways and in other ways perhaps not. Furthermore, does this kind of setup create a space for authentic human relationships to grow, or are these environments synthetic in a way that creates isolation even when people find themselves in oversaturated and populated spaces?

Nevertheless, we humans in our fascinating ways remain connected across countries and cultures like never before in this digital age. Someone halfway across the world could be watching a performance by someone they might never meet in person, in a region they’ve never even heard of, in a language they’ve never spoken. We must at least recognise these advancements in the name of more authentic human relationships, and more choice in terms of the music we can listen to and the people we can interact with. We have many tools that can connect us to others, whether it’s through music, AI, or shared linguistics. Yet this interconnector of divine harmony and sonorous body, that is music, remains the one example of shared experience within social spaces that involves creativity, community, language, and sound. It is a relationship-building block in its own right, unbounded across location, economic status, religious belief, and even further. Music can be made with just about anything at any time with any kind of instrument. It can be as basic as tapping your foot on the floor or emitting a low hum. Making music doesn’t require money, rules, a designated time and place, or anything too restrictive. It simply requires the maker  to be creative and put their mind and body to work, either individually or in a group environment.

Now, more than ever, with issues like loneliness and digital addiction on the rise, people need to find ways that bring happiness, connection, and socialisation into their hearts and homes and I believe that music is a great way to start repairing that disconnection from self and from community. After thousands of years since its initial creation, music remains a genuine way of building community and enriching the lives of ourselves and those around us, and even those in foreign lands with the technological capabilities of 2026. So, to the reader, I ask you to ponder the following questions: how can you build your communities through music and the arts? And what makes you feel like you belong to a community of genuine connection and shared values?

References

Atwood et al. (2019). Universality and diversity in human song. Science, 366(6468). https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax0868

Bär et al. (2025). On the edge of a digital event era: Which innovative factors influence the willingness to pay for virtual concerts?. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 10(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2025.100776

Dunbar et al. (2014). Music and social bonding: “self-other” merging and neurohormonal mechanisms. Frontiers, 5(1096). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01096

Griffiths, Daniel. (2022, December 28). ABBA Voyage: How does it work? MusicRadar. https://www.musicradar.com/features/abba-voyage-how-does-it-work-best-of-2022

In The Know (2023, October 25). Music’s Historical Influence: From Ancient Greece to Modern Times. Musicians Institute. https://www.mi.edu/in-the-know/musics-historical-influence-ancient-greece-modern-times/

Metallica (2013, December 9). Metallica Freeze ‘Em All in Antarctica. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nNx-zgqOfk

Montagu, J. (2017). How Music and Instruments Began: A Brief Overview of the Origin and Entire Development of Music, from Its Earliest Stages, Frontiers, 2(8). https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2017.00008

National Institutes of Health (2023, September 13). Is Music a Universal Language?. NIH Common Fund. https://commonfund.nih.gov/earlyindependence/highlights/music-universal-language