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. 2024 Feb 14:15:1302548.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1302548. eCollection 2024.

Love songs and serenades: a theoretical review of music and romantic relationships

Joshua S Bamford  1   2 , Julia Vigl  1   3 , Matias Hämäläinen  1 , Suvi Helinä Saarikallio  1
Affiliations

Love songs and serenades: a theoretical review of music and romantic relationships

Joshua S Bamford et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

In this theoretical review, we examine how the roles of music in mate choice and social bonding are expressed in romantic relationships. Darwin's Descent of Man originally proposed the idea that musicality might have evolved as a sexually selected trait. This proposition, coupled with the portrayal of popular musicians as sex symbols and the prevalence of love-themed lyrics in music, suggests a possible link between music and attraction. However, recent scientific exploration of the evolutionary functions of music has predominantly focused on theories of social bonding and group signaling, with limited research addressing the sexual selection hypothesis. We identify two distinct types of music-making for these different functions: music for attraction, which would be virtuosic in nature to display physical and cognitive fitness to potential mates; and music for connection, which would facilitate synchrony between partners and likely engage the same reward mechanisms seen in the general synchrony-bonding effect, enhancing perceived interpersonal intimacy as a facet of love. Linking these two musical functions to social psychological theories of relationship development and the components of love, we present a model that outlines the potential roles of music in romantic relationships, from initial attraction to ongoing relationship maintenance. In addition to synthesizing the existing literature, our model serves as a roadmap for empirical research aimed at rigorously investigating the possible functions of music for romantic relationships.

Keywords: dance; human evolution; mate choice; romantic (love); social bonding hypothesis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visualization of the Music-Evolution-Love (MEL) Model. Relationship stages are arranged on the horizontal axis at the top, corresponding to the dominant aspect of Sternberg’s triangular model of love at the bottom. The vertical axis shows the relative importance of the social bonding and mate choice functions. Examples of specific uses of music are given within the diagram, based upon the existing research.
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Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Research Council of Finland (346210 and 332331), and the Österreichische Forschungsgemeinschaft (project 06 / 16599). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (grant 101045747). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.