Steve Lukather (guitar/vocals) and Joseph Williams (vocals), Greg Phillinganes (keyboards / vocals), Shannon Forrest (drums), John Pierce (bass), Warren Ham (horns / percussion / vocals), and Dennis Atlas (keyboards / vocals). Photo: Supplied / Michelle Brody
The Grammy Awards were held last week and on the music awards' website, grammy.com, came the revelation that a group of neuroscientists and music enthusiasts have chosen the perfect, or nearly perfect, pop song.
Their choice was Toto's 1982 yacht-rock tune 'Africa'.
Whether you love it or loathe it, it's certainly had cultural staying power over the decades.
Dr David Poeppel, a professor of psychology and neural science, has spent many years researching language, music and emotion - he's also a Toto fan.
So why do some people love Toto's 'Africa', while others get goosebumps from bagpipes, and others cry to Bach's cantatas?
'Africa' has certain structural elements that appeal, he told RNZ's Sunday Morning.
"It has a kind of groove, people love the timing of it, the rhythm of it. So, it is a very, very successful song. That's for sure. Whether it's the best, who the hell knows?"
Enculturation, the music we hear in our environment, plays a big part on what appeals to us, he said, but in the first instance we all perceive sound the same way.
"From the point of view of the ear, from the ears eye view, it's just an auditory signal coming in. At the beginning, there's a sort of shared thing, no matter where you're from.
"No matter where you grow up, there's a kind of imperative of biology. And then, for lack of a better term, higher order centres of the brain are sensitive to the stuff you've learned.
"Did you grew up listening primarily to, let's say, Chinese folk music versus death metal? That will sensitise you in different ways, to perhaps harmonic structure to perhaps particular kinds of scales."
It's "extremely difficult to ferret out" what it is about particular pieces people like, he said.
"Some of it is just to do with the piece itself, the physical structure of the song, the lyrics. Some of it is the cultural aspect and the context, and some of it is just individual history, your development - when you heard what."
While we can learn to appreciate music not from our era, we all tend to develop strong musical memories from our teens, he said.
"You do have the capacity to appreciate new things, but there is something special developmentally and biologically about between the ages 10 to 30.
"But it is quite normal to then learn about the other stuff later on that's not unusual at all."
No matter what our individual tastes, music is good for us, he said
"It's excellent for mood, I can't think of a single bad thing, other than if you play it too loud, it hurts your peripheral auditory system. Turn it down and enjoy it."
