It’s an odd thought. It’s a simple one, easy enough to state aloud, but so fundamentally odd to some of us that it seems abstract and absurd: some people do not like music.

It’s not that they don’t like a specific genre or are just extra picky. They don’t like music, full stop. It’s familiar enough that there’s a name for it: specific musical anhedonia. Science might have finally figured out what’s behind it.

A decade ago, researchers from the University of Barcelona decided to dig into the mystery of why some people feel nothing when the beat drops. These weren’t curmudgeons who hate fun or sociopaths immune to the charms of Carly Ray Jepsen.

These were folks who responded just fine to all the usual pleasures except for music, to which they would respond with a resounding “meh.”

Turns

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