Notes on Music, Musicking, Affordances, and Health

What is music in the context of music and health?

The video focuses on clarifying what we mean by the word music as part of the phrase music and health.
The intuitive view is that music is simple and widely understood, but it is also complex due to the depth of knowledge and practice required to understand and perform it.
Introducing a broader, action-based understanding of music adds a radical layer beyond treating music as a noun (a thing or object).
Christopher Small (New Zealand ethnomusicologist) critiqued the noun-ified view of music and argued that relegating music to a sound or representation loses the essence of music as an act or a verb (musicking).
We agree that music involves participation (listening, practicing, performing, dancing, composing), but Small extends this idea further to include all contributors to the musical event (producers, roadies, ticket sellers, cleaners).
This action-based view foregrounds relationships: music happens within a set of relationships; music is about the people who share in it, not merely the notes or sound waves.
Musicking is a metaphor for relationships and is inherently relational, which is central to the connection between music and health.

Small’s musicking: music as an activity, not a static object

Small argues that music is an act (a verb) rather than a static thing (a noun).
Musicking includes: listening, practicing, performing, dancing, composing, and more broadly the social and relational processes around making music.
The scope of musicking encompasses all participants and roles involved in a musical event, including those far removed from the actual sound (e.g., producers, roadies, cleaners).
This expanded action-based understanding highlights the importance of relationships in music and health.
The idea that music happens within relationships means that even distant listeners or cross-cultural music can impact health because music is about shared human connection.

Music as relational and global: the heart of health connections

Music is inherently relational: it concerns people who share in the musical activity.
The act of making music together serves as a metaphor for relationships that cross distance, culture, politics, or wellness levels.
Regardless of whether the music originates from one culture or touches someone across the globe, musicking emphasizes shared relationality.
The central claim: music’s health relevance comes from how it enables or reflects relationships, not merely from its acoustic properties.

An evolutionary lens: why might music matter in human societies?

An evolutionary perspective asks what role music has played in human societies and systems historically.
The ubiquity of music and dance across cultures suggests an essential function beyond mere aesthetics.
Survival theories propose music played a functional role in traditional cultures, potentially contributing to survival.
Two broad survival-related categories are discussed:
- Long-distance communication and social coordination via rhythm and drumming.
- Enhancing individual appeal through dance and performance, which may affect mate selection and reproduction.
Rhythm as a core element: beating together in time could have been a first mechanism for building community and organizational systems, enabling intergroup communication and connection across distances or terrain (e.g., mountains).
The sexual/peacocking interpretation suggests music and performance contribute to charisma and mate appeal, as reflected in contemporary music videos with objectification themes.
A different evolutionary function: music as a mechanism for nonverbal communication and social bonding, especially evident in infancy and caregiver interactions.
Co-regulation of infant emotions: Alan Disinyarkey (as cited) argues music’s capacity to elicit emotion is exploited by parents to co-regulate an infant’s emotions, highlighting music’s role in early social bonding.

Ian Cross and the concept of floating intentionality

Ian Cross extends the evolutionary argument by distinguishing music from language-based communication, especially in group settings.
He introduces the term floating intentionality to describe how music enables successful social encounters by creating conditions that minimize conflict while promoting a sense of shared purpose.
Example: singing in a choir where participants may hold divergent political, religious, or wellness views, yet join in one voice for a common purpose.
Cross argues that music affords us space to rehearse and sustain social flexibility and cohesion in diverse groups.

The affordances view: how music enables and constrains action

JJ Gibson (late 1950s) introduced the concept of affordances: features of an environment that allow an observer to perform an action.
In music studies, affordances explain how music does not act like a simple, drug-like predictor of health; instead, it creates conditions that permit actions and possibilities.
Ian Cross uses the term to describe how music provides opportunities to rehearse, sustain, and create possibilities for affecting health outcomes.
Tia DeNora elaborates the affordance concept in music, explaining that people use music to shape identity, regulate moods, and fit into surroundings.
Affordances can enable or constrain actions, depending on how individuals or groups appropriate them; human agency is crucial to whether music contributes to healthy or unhealthy outcomes.
The practical implication: music’s impact on health depends on how people actively choose to use and interpret its affordances.

Agency, context, and the shaping of health outcomes

Key tensions: music does not directly create health; it provides possibilities that can be appropriated in healthy or unhealthy ways.
Health-related effects depend on how individuals or groups appropriate music’s affordances within their social and cultural positions.
The author’s own research focuses on how young people use or appropriate music’s affordances during difficult life periods, illustrating how context shapes outcomes.
Central takeaways:
- Music is more than an object; it is an action embedded in relationships.
- The evolutionary function of music includes social connection and cooperative potential, not just survival.
- Human agency and socio-cultural positioning determine whether music improves or worsens well-being.
Practical implications for health practice:
- Consider how music is used within a person’s life context and social relationships.
- Recognize that promoting health through music involves supporting constructive appropriation of its affordances while acknowledging power dynamics and cultural differences.
- Be mindful of ethical implications, such as objectification in media and how music engagement can reflect or reinforce social inequalities.

Key themes and implications for study and practice

Music is an action (musicking) and relational activity, not merely an object or sound.
The evolutionary perspective suggests music has long-standing social and bonding functions that can be leveraged for health benefits.
Floating intentionality and affordances describe how music creates opportunities for social cohesion and individual action, with outcomes shaped by agency and context.
Health is not caused by music alone; it emerges from how music is used, experienced, and embedded within broader social and cultural frameworks.
Ethical considerations include avoiding objectification, understanding cultural differences, and promoting inclusive, relational music practices that support well-being.

Final takeaways for applying the concepts

When considering music and health, focus on the relational, participatory nature of music-making rather than treating music as a standalone product or sound.
Use the affordances framework to understand how musical activities can enable or constrain health-related actions, guided by individual agency and cultural context.
Recognize the diverse roles in musicking (performers, listeners, producers, venue staff, etc.) and their collective contribution to the health-related impact of music.
Employ an evolutionary lens to appreciate why music exists across cultures and how its social bonding functions can be leveraged to support well-being across communities.
In practice, design music-based health interventions that emphasize collaborative, inclusive, and adaptive use of musical affordances, while being mindful of ethical implications and social inequalities.