The Pop Corporation

There’s been a study undertaken that could show how humans first started getting into music as a species, and we were into it first. The study suggests that Madagascan lemurs used music for a variety of purposes, which could give insight in how humans evolved into creating music, but we prefer the early stuff.

Co-author Dr Chiara De Gregorio, from the University of Warwick, said that the indris lemurs communicate with song, much in the same way that birds do. They use rhythmic vocalisations like alarm calls to alert family members of predators, but seriously, the early stuff was way better – they weren’t at the whim of studies and worrying about whether Fantano was going to give them a withering look while drinking from a stupid mason jar on YouTube.

The indris are known as “singing lemurs” live in small family groups in the Madagascan rainforest and communicate using songs. You’ve probably not heard them. We have. They’re great. Well, the early stuff. Did we mention that? The newer stuff is a bit commercial really. Still good, but y’know, we already knew all of this stuff, but you probably don’t seeing as you’re just getting into singing lemurs. They’ve been observed to sing when they lose sight of each other. Living in dense forests, that happens frequently. They will alert each other to their whereabouts and to any present danger in the community. Bangers only.

Researchers have been gathering data for 15 years on these lemurs, but they could have just asked us because we’ve been into them from the start. Lemurs call each other in a steady beat, and that the indris have “the highest number of vocal rhythms shared with the human musical repertoire – surpassing songbirds and other mammals”, according to Dr De Gregorio, who honestly, we’ve not seen down the front of any shows lately.

Dr De Gregorio could have just asked us, as the early stuff is super interesting rhythmically. The new stuff, less so. It’s still good, don’t get us wrong. We just wish they would have stayed with the early sound.

Dr Daria Valente, from the University of Turin also added: “The findings highlight the evolutionary roots of musical rhythm, demonstrating that the foundational elements of human music can be traced back to early primate communication systems.”

Wait ’til they start listening to the stuff that influenced the lemurs. That’s the really good stuff. Super interesting and not beholden to Western scales and all that. You’d love it. We’ll tell you about it in a beer garden even though you’ve shown absolutely no interest in it. It’s so influential though… like, your favourite band wouldn’t be here without it… hello? We were saying… your favourite band… lemurs… the stuff that came before it… it’s so influential… really cool… you’re gonna love it… we’ll make you a mixtape… hello? Hello?