A number of theories have been proposed to account for links between music and emotion but fundamental questions remain. Are there general principles that might account for the connection between music and emotion across cultures and historic periods or is musical significance unique to every time and place? Does music influence emotions directly or do cognitive and motor processes mediate this link? Can broad principles of human interaction account for connections between music and emotion?We first discuss general theories of emotion and how they view the relation between emotion and cognition. We next discuss empirical evidence demonstrating that specific attributes of music are individually associated with distinct emotional interpretations, and may be manipulated by performers and composers to convey complex and dynamic emotional messages. We also describe empirical investigations that attempt to disentangle the contributions of cross-cultural and culture-specific associations between music and emotion. Finally, we introduce a recent body of theory and data concerning the cognitive-motor implications of music, and review an emerging framework for conceiving the link between music and emotion. This conception focuses on the capacity of music to resonate with psychological processes that function in human synchronization, and to elicit emotional effects related to these processes. Such effects may be particularly powerful because music accommodates synchronization on multiple levels, including movement (clapping, tapping), attention, and imagination (Livingstone and Thompson 2009; Overy and Molnar-Szakacs 2009). Effects arising from the motor system, in turn, may influence aesthetic judgments (Topolinsky 2010).