In an article by Rick Nauert, Emotional Music Triggers Addictive Brain Activity, it was found by a Canadian research group that the "the pleasure centers in the brain that respond to drug craving are also active when we listen to emotionally powerful music that gives us 'chills' or 'shivers-down-the-spine.'" They also found that the music that caused chills "led to a release of dopamine in the reward centers of the brain," the same thing that happens when you smoke cocaine.
There was also a study by Northeastern University back in 1999 testing if people really could be addictive to music. They took 90 people and asked them questions similar to the ones asked to people with alcohol, like instead of "Do you feel you are a normal drinker?" they asked "Do you feel you listen to music at normal levels?" Eight out of the 90 people were found to suffer from an addiction, but many of the participants were recruited at a record store, so that whole study seems invalid to me.
I am not one to argue against music not being addictive. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's as addicting as cocaine, though i'm sure in some cases people could be, but if i hear a song that i really like, or is stuck in my head, i'll want to listen to it. Heck, i was listening to my iPod while writing this.
Does that make me an addict?
"Hello, I'm Lucas...and i'm addicted to music..."
