The Super Mario Bros. theme performed in a minor key makes it sound super sad. But have you ever wondered why songs played in a major key sound happy and those in a minor key sound sad? Apparantly, it’s the result of “cultural conditioning.”

When we listen to tunes we rely heavily on our memory for the body of music we’ve heard all our life. Constantly touching base with our musical memory back catalogue helps to generate expectations of what might come next in a tune, which is an important source of enjoyment in musical listening. The downside of this over reliance on memory is that our musical reactions are frequently led by stereotypes. [Source]

[YAOG]