What relates Spotify to the Dakota tribes?
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Without a doubt, music has always been—in a sense—an insubstantial “drug” that acts on our brains, creating a bond, a vinculum that alters our state of mind. Why else would Beethoven's "Ninth" be played when a contestant wins €300,000 on the “Affari tuoi” TV show? Why do the spectators cheer?
For its part, the semantic side of music—far from the kinetic stimulus of Wagnerian orchestral fullness or a boom-bass—is also capable of changing our state of mind, perhaps giving us ideas, as in Lady Marmalade (how many children were born from “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”).
In short, music is not a passenger in life, but rather one of the drivers of the locomotive.
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On the positive side, the bond created by Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" and by music in general brings vital improvements: the game played between music and us has a sum greater than zero. This is the case with the Gong or Tuning Fork therapies. Or playing an instrument (or singing) - which a study has found to help dementia sufferers in their executive functions, with a positive correlation between general musical ability and ‘working memory’.
Another study (this one from the University of Vermont College) confirms that music is good for the brain development of young people [at least] up to the age of 18.
Looking at the matter from another perspective, I am struck by the recordings made in 1912 and 1915 with the ‘Creek Women's Society of the Mandan’ of the Sioux of the Teton Mountains: three years later, the songs were re-performed in exactly the same key and tempo. Could animist beliefs (or even mysteries) be hidden behind those frequencies and rhythms?
[NB: The Sioux—in their language: Dakota in the Santee dialect; or Dakola in the Teton dialect—ceased to exist ‘in the wild’ with the last Sun Dance of 1881 and the last Great Buffalo Hunt of 1882.
For those who love this stuff, there is a book published by the Smithsonian, “Teton Sioux Music” (1918) by Frances Desmore, who took on the historic task of recording the songs of the Dakota; you can find a free PDF scan of the first edition of the book online.]
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Full article, in Italian, on Blow Up magazine, November 2025 issue.