Fear of Music
Melophobia
Melophobia is defined in the reference literature as fear or hatred of music, and the only Wikipedia article under the name is about a rock album. The band's own explanation of the title is the most considered account of the word anywhere.
What the reference definition says
The 2008 encyclopedia of phobias defines melophobia as fear or hatred of music, and that is the entire entry. No cause, no case, no prevalence, no treatment.
The word hatred is doing something the rest of the vocabulary usually avoids. A phobia is not a dislike, and reference works are ordinarily careful to keep the two apart. Here they are joined by an or, which is what happens with a term nobody has had to apply to a patient: the definition can accommodate both because nothing depends on the difference.
How the band redefined the word
Cage the Elephant recorded their third album at St Charles in Nashville with the producer Jay Joyce and released it as Melophobia on 8 October 2013. It was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 57th Grammy Awards and certified platinum in November 2022.
The band knew what the word is supposed to mean and said they did not intend it literally. What they meant by it, in their own account, is a fear of creating music to project premeditated images of self, catering to cool, or making music to project an image of being intellectual or artistic or poetic, rather than just trying to be an honest communicator.
That is a usable definition of something real, and it is not what the encyclopedia describes. It names a fear of being seen making a choice, which is a social fear, and it locates it in the producer of the music rather than the listener.
The method followed the title. In making the record the band shut themselves off from as much recorded music as they could, in order to get away from comparisons with the sounds that had influenced them. A fear of music, applied as a working procedure, meant not listening to any.
What else the title is about
The frontman Matthew Shultz described the record as a battle to remain transparent and honest. He credits the principle to a remark relayed from Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse: that a songwriter not slightly embarrassed to sing the lyrics is probably not writing a good song, and that the way to get there is to write naturally rather than poetically.
Embarrassment is the operative emotion in both accounts, the band's and the encyclopedia's silence around it. What Shultz describes wanting to overcome is the same self-consciousness that social anxiety disorder is defined by, in the one setting where it is professionally required.
What a clinical version would look like
Nothing in the sources here describes a patient who cannot bear to hear music. Where a real intolerance of sound exists it is documented under other names:
- phonophobia, for the fear of specific sounds
- hyperacusis, for pain caused by sound
- Misophonia, for the anger produced by particular triggers
Music is a sound with structure, and none of those three requires it to have any. Nor does the one instrument-specific word here, aulophobia, which has no cases either.
A person distressed by music specifically would be assessed under one of those headings, and melophobia would not be written down. It has no diagnostic listing, no case report and no prevalence figure, and its best-known appearance is a sleeve designed by R. Clint Colburn out of photographed plasticine figures on a striped background.
Told apart
Often confused with Fear of Music
- Fear of SoundPhonophobia is where a genuine intolerance of sound is documented, with a case literature and a differential against hyperacusis. Music is a sound with structure and phonophobia does not require the structure.
- MisophoniaMisophonia names an emotional reaction to specific trigger sounds, which is the nearest documented thing to what a fear or hatred of music would be. Chewing is its standard example rather than melody.
- Fear of FlutesAulophobia attaches to one instrument and has the same evidentiary position: a definition in the same reference book, a psychoanalytic gloss, and no patient.
Common questions
Questions about Melophobia
- Why does Wikipedia's article go to an album?
- Because there is no article about the fear. Cage the Elephant released Melophobia in October 2013, it was nominated for a Grammy and certified platinum in 2022, and the record is the only subject substantial enough under that name to carry an encyclopedia entry.
- What did the band mean by the title?
- Not the dictionary sense, which they knew and set aside. They meant a fear of making music in order to project a premeditated image of the self: catering to cool, or performing intellectualism or poetry rather than communicating honestly. It is a fear located in the person making the music rather than in a listener, and it is a better description of something real than the reference definition is.
- Is there any clinical record of it?
- Five words in a 2008 encyclopedia: fear or hatred of music. No case, no prevalence, no treatment and no diagnostic listing. The joining of fear and hatred in one definition is itself a sign that nobody has had to apply the term to a patient, because nothing has ever depended on the difference.
- What would a real intolerance of music be called?
- Something else. Phonophobia covers a fear of specific sounds and has published cases; hyperacusis covers pain caused by sound; misophonia covers anger at particular triggers. Music is a structured sound, and none of the three requires the structure, so a patient would be assessed under one of those names.
Added 2026-08-24 · Revised 2026-08-26
Nearby in the catalogue
Related entries
- Fear of SoundThe name says loud; the reported sounds are a door closing and something in the kitchen. The line between it and hyperacusis decides what treatment is safe.
- MisophoniaLoudness is not the variable and the reaction is anger, not fear. Why the surveys report anything from 2 to 18 per cent, and why none of them is named.
- Fear of FlutesOne explanation exists and it is that the flute is a phallic symbol. The clearest use of the word in print is as an example of a fear not worth treating.
- Fear of Being TouchedThe clinical record offers a definition and a list of symptoms. The only accounts of where the fear comes from are in fiction, and they say abuse, consistently.
- Fear of ClothingVestiphobia is a fear of clothing, usually of one fabric or one garment. One source calls it a word-list term, the other an under-recognised disorder.
- Fear of ColorsClinical fears of colour are rare and usually attach to one hue. The same word names an old argument that Western taste has always distrusted colour.