Not most — every single one. And no one can fully explain why.
Older than civilization. No writing. No wheel. No money. Always music. We have 40,000-year-old bone flutes. Older than farming, older than cities, maybe older than language.
The puzzle. No obvious survival value. Darwin himself was baffled. Yet every culture, everywhere, has it.
The best answer we have. Music may be humanity's original bonding technology. Singing and drumming together syncs heartbeats. It floods brains with the same chemicals as touch. It turns strangers into one unit, one tribe. Before we wrote treaties, we sang together. That's how you make a tribe.
Songs. Stories. Shared meals. Dance. These aren't useless — they're the glue. We didn't survive because we were strong or fast. We survived because we could feel as one, and music was the first tool that made it possible.