Dopamine, music and reductionism; or the day the music died

It's a common fad of our time to explain things in terms of reductionism. One example of this regrettable trend is to explain music in terms of dopamine.

Quotes and comments;

1. 'However, as a neurotransmitter, dopamine is also known to imprint the memory of a pleasure-causing event. Valorie Salimpoor, a McGill University neuroscientist, told Discovery News, "The intense pleasure we get from [music] is actually biologically reinforcing in the brain, and now here's proof for it." [1.]

- I don't like this way of putting things. It makes it sound as if we listen to make to get a hit of dopamine! This strikes me as wrong headed. This is materialist reductionism. What is dopamine? It's just a chemical. The only reason it has any special properties (connected with pleasure) is because of the way the brain is programmed. We can draw an analogy with the alphabet. e.g. there is nothing 'magical' about the shape of the letter P (or L, E, etc.) that is connected to pleasure... it's the shape it is, simply because of the code used for the English alphabet.

- I insist that we listen to music for the sake of the music, for the sake of the pleasure the music brings. Dopamine facilitates this process, but is not what listening pleasure is all about. If it were, we could just take a hit of dopamine (or cocaine or whatever).
Reductionism is directly connected to drug use in my view; as it 'short circuits' artistic, cultural and social life. i.e. if man is just a puddle of chemicals why bother with the intermediary factors mentioned above? Man however (in the biblical view) is more than chemicals; he was designed for communication, relationship. community and worship. (He was designed for music as well; as an integral part of worship.) In materialist theory there is no room for purpose, and so we get dumbed down theories like music as a dopamine seeking behavior.

- I consider it a horrid idea to claim a person enjoys singing a hymn or listening to a mass (etc.) because of the dopamine hit they get. This is a dehumanizing idea. (We can see in this example how basic worldview assumptions can affect how we develop theories and explanation.) This might be akin to claiming a person likes to read because they like looking at letters. Reductionism reduces everything to one level; it takes human experience that is rich in levels and layers of meaning, and dumbs it down to the chemical level.

2. "This basically explains why music has been around for so long," she added. "The intense pleasure we get from it is actually biologically reinforcing in the brain, and now here's proof for it." [2.]
- Does this explain why music has been around for so long. I don't think so. You can put that spin on it if you want, but I don't see it. Music has been around for so long because people enjoy making music, listening to it, dancing to it, getting together with others, etc. (and because we were designed for music; we are musical beings... and because at best music is all about praise and worship.)

Notes;
1. Study Shows Humans Are Uniquely Designed for Music by Brian Thomas
2. Why Music Makes You Happy - Emily Sohn
'People love music for much the same reason they're drawn to sex, drugs, gambling and delicious food, according to new research. When you listen to tunes that move you, the study found, your brain releases dopamine, a chemical involved in both motivation and addiction.'
3. This theory fails to address why some people find AC/DC pleasurable (i.e. gives them chills) and some people hate it. I assume we don't get dopamine release from music we hate. It doesn't explain why we like music at all; or how music came to be... or really anything interesting at all.