Music is a universal phenomenon, a creative and expressive art that permeates our lives. Every human society has its own musical traditions and styles, and the effects of music are felt in a variety of social and emotional settings. In many ways, it is an art form that reflects a deep and complex connection to the human psyche.

Unlike painting and sculpture, music has no spatialized dimensions, and its essence is conceived in terms of its sound. It is composed for beauty and harmony. It has been an important adjunct to rituals, dance, and drama. Throughout the history of Western civilization, it has been used to convey feelings, to evoke emotions, and to inspire creativity.

The psychology of music has a complex relationship with culture. Often it serves as an adjunct to the drama or rituals, but it can also provide a way to explore the inner workings of the human psyche. Psychologists investigate the functional role of music in human experience, and the measurable acoustic phenomena that influence the way people perceive and react to music.

During the 19th century, various approaches to the study of music developed, and some have been more successful than others. These include the formalist, the contextualist, the psychoanalytical, and the humanist. All of them emphasize one aspect of music, while others have taken a broader view.

For the most part, all theorists agree that music is an auditory phenomenon. They disagree about the nature of music's relationship to the empirical world. Some believe that music consists of a set of rules that govern the way it sounds, while others say that it has no external meaning.

During the 18th century, there were a number of speculations about the nature of music. One of these was that it was a "means of imitation" that could reflect the moral order of the universe. Many of the theories of the time were based on the idea that the human mind can imitate other natural or imaginary objects.

Aristotle argued that music had the potential to mould the character of a person. He also believed that works of art could contain a measure of truth. Similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas regarded the music as a representation of celestial movement, and Gottfried von Leibniz believed that it had a fundamental mathematical nature.

Although some music theorists believed that music was an immoral art, others viewed it as a powerful tool for religious and spiritual devotion. Friedrich Nietzsche affirmed the power of music to create myths, while Arthur Schopenhauer deprecated music that is unnaturally programmatic and blatantly copying natural sounds.

Another theory of music originated in the Roman philosopher Boethius, who viewed music as a means of maintaining social order. Boethius had a strong philosophical and conservative leaning.