Joshua Sanchez
Joshua Sanchez is a senior music major (voice performance). While most of his interests center around music, primarily opera and other forms of classical music, Kent State University’s Brain Health Research Institute is allowing Joshua the opportunity to pursue research, which he also finds critical.
“I find research important not only for innovation, but also to gain understanding,” Joshua said.
“Currently, my topic of research is melodic repetition in popular music beginning from when the Billboard charts began in 1955 to present day,” he said. “We believe popular music becomes more repetitive over time and we will be comparing the top 20 and bottom 20 (out of 100) throughout the Billboard era.”
Joshua is hoping to discover insight into how our minds process and perceive the world by looking at musical artifacts that are most aesthetically pleasing, compelling and therefore popular. In short, the hypothesis is that music that has become more popular will demonstrate more melodic repetition than less popular music on average, consistent with the theory that our minds prefer more efficient signal processing. This has implications for brain health in that musicians who want to trigger aesthetic experiences and positive emotions in the listener might do well to keep in mind how brains prefer processing the music they are exposed to.
Joshua’s research sponsor is Joshua Albrecht, Ph.D. of the Music department.
The generosity of those who support Kent State and our outstanding students, along with the vital role of our Brain Health Research Institute, are allowing Joshua the opportunity to explore this fascinating theory.
Joshua was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, grew up in Lorain, Ohio and graduated from Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst, Ohio. His hobbies include playing video games, going to live shows, taking nature walks and spending time with friends and family.