The surprising fit between the basic pattern of hominid sociality (inferred from shared features of human and chimpanzee sociality) and one of the models developed to explain the evolution of synchronous chorusing in insects suggests that synchronous chorusing played a role in the late Miocene separation of the hominid ancestors of humans from our common ancestor with the chimpanzee. A detailed evolutionary scenario for this process is presented which implies that the roots of human music extend some five million years into the past. This perspective sheds new light not only on the origins of rhythmic song and dance — and thus of music — but on the relationship between music and language in human evolution and on the cross-cultural ubiquity of rhythmic music and dance in present-day human cultures. It also carries implications for our interpretation of the lack of agreement concerning the very term “music” in different human languages.
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