Why don't cats like music?

[Don_t_Panic]

@brujaja

“Imagine watching YouTube eight hours a day for a month,” she says.

What do you mean, imagine? That’s my summer holiday you’re describing.

[Johnny_L.A]

I had a cat that liked it when I played Mr.Bojangles on the guitar. He’d sit and look all contented. He didn’t seem to like other songs I played.

[Arrendajo]

@Johnny_L.A

I had a cat that liked it when I played Mr.Bojangles on the guitar. He’d sit and look all contented. He didn’t seem to like other songs I played.

It would have been amazing if he’d danced.

[Snickers]

I had a cat that would definitely respond when I played either the flute or piccolo. I don’t know if she liked it or what, but if I pulled it out and started playing, she’d absolutely come running. Every time.

[panache45]

Cats may not enjoy music, but they can tell the difference between music and noise. Back when I was listening to LPs, there was no reaction from the cats, unless there was a scratch or other non-musical sound. Then they’d prick up their ears . . . even if the scratch wasn’t any louder than the music. They knew the difference.

[Catfood_Purrito]

Two of my cats don’t respond at all to music, the third one I’m not sure if he hates it when I sing, or what the deal is, but he definitely reacts. He follows me around yowling plaintively, and if I’m sitting down, he crawls into my lap and snuggles furiously. I was in a choir last year, and I had to lock him in the bedroom while I rehearsed. He really liked the cat music linked to above, though.

[Malleus_Incus_Stapes]

@brujaja

Hey, Malleus, Incus, Stapes! I googled your quote above, “only birds and humans…” and I got this site, from which I quote the following:

*Adena Schachner is a graduate student in the psychology department of Harvard University. She says she was familiar with the idea that some people had made videos of birds supposedly dancing. And back in 2007, when she got interested in this, a famous African Grey Parrot named Alex lived at a nearby animal cognition lab. So she and her colleagues created some new music, something no bird could have heard before, and they played it for Alex.

“We were shocked, basically, when we put on these tracks and saw him bobbing his head what looked like to the beat,” Schachner says.

Unfortunately, Alex died soon after. But Schachner realized that they could look for other dancing animals, with the help of YouTube. “We searched for ‘cat dancing’, ‘dog dancing,’ ‘bird dancing,’” she explains.

She and her colleagues eventually analyzed more than 5,000 videos. “Imagine watching YouTube eight hours a day for a month,” she says. “That’s pretty much what we did. It was amusing for perhaps the first couple of hours.”

In the end, only 33 videos really seemed to show creatures moving with a beat. There were 14 different species of parrots and one elephant species.

Dancers Are Vocal Mimics

Schachner says the important thing is that, like humans — and unlike dogs or cats — parrots and elephants are both known to be vocal mimics. They can imitate sounds. “And that’s really striking,” she says.

It means dancing may be a byproduct of an ability that evolved for vocal imitation and vocal learning. After all, to mimic a sound, you have to listen to it and its rhythm and then use that information to coordinate movement — to shape the way you move your lips and tongue.*
That is exactly what I was wondering about! Thank you!

Elephants too? I did not remember hearing about that.

[conurepete]

My husband is a musician, who teaches(sometimes from home) and he was very close to Steve the African grey parrot. If you whistled to him, Steve could whistle back to you, also he could do call and response, finish the X Files theme, repeat a motif with variations, transpose a short melody into different keys, and whistle a tune backwards. Steve could also mess around improvising whistles like a heavily medicated jazz musician. He would get mad and bite if overexposed to the key of D. Steve’s interest and ability with music were well above the human average. My current parrots love to listen to music, but only 2 of them dance, and only one and a half sing. Jeff bird likes to sing a big, clear operatic high C, and Zazhoo bird sings his name, in a couple different melodies, and also the word “a__holes” in an ascending melody.

[Proudest_Monkey]

Minny (RIP) was a fan of the piano. I am a very beginning learner but she would patiently sit on the bench beside me every time I played. Yes, I know the proximity to me was probably what she sought, but she didn’t display the same behavior when I was settled in my chair reading a book, for instance. At any rate, she enjoyed marching up and down the keyboard making atonal kitty music–got to the point where I’d have to close the cover at bedtime lest she wake us up in the middle of the night with her playing. It was probably not a love of music as such, but the ability to create sounds with a keyboard struck a nerve with her.

Charlie, OTOH, leaves the room every time I sit down on the bench, even if he is lolling in the last patch of sunlight in the house. I suck THAT much. :mad:

I miss Minny.

[Jaledin]

Cats love music, but they hate cinammon. Maybe they just don’t like your music, but I submit Zez Confrey’s “Kitten on the Keys.” I don’t think cats in general like loud noises though, so in the past when I had a cat, she generally wouldn’t hang on my every note when I was practicing at my apartment.