This Is Your Brain on Music

The Science of a Human Obsession

By: Daniel J. Levitin

Narrated by: Daniel J. Levitin

Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
• Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
• Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
• What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music?
• Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?

This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.

Critic reviews

“Endlessly stimulating, a marvelous overview, and one which only a deeply musical neuroscientist could give....An important book.”—Oliver Sacks, M.D.

“I loved reading that listening to music coordinates more disparate parts of the brain than almost anything else - and playing music uses even more! Despite illuminating a lot of what goes on, this book doesn't 'spoil' enjoyment—it only deepens the beautiful mystery that is music.”—David Byrne, founder of Talking Heads and author of How Music Works

“Levitin is a deft and patient explainer of the basics for the non-scientist as well as the non-musician....By tracing music's deep ties to memory, Levitin helps quantify some of music's magic without breaking its spell.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review“Why human beings make and enjoy music is, in Levitin's telling, a delicious story.”—Salon.com

“Dr. Levitin is an unusually deft interpreter full of striking scientific trivia.”—The New York Times

“Every musician, at whatever level of skill, should read this book.”—Howie Klein, former president, Sire and Reprise/Warner Brothers Records

“Levitin’s lucid explanation of why music is important to us is essential reading for creative musicians and scholars. I've been waiting for years for a book like this.”—Jon Appleton, composer and professor of Music, Dartmouth College and Stanford University, inventor of the Synclavier synthesizer

Illuminating

Full of good information about music and how and why it affects us so strongly.

Wow!

Un trésor d’information pour un amateur de musique et science. Excellente narration de l’auteur et quelques exemples musicaux qui rendent l’écoute très vivante.

Extremely technical for readers without deep musical backgrounds

For someone without a background of music this got entirely too deep for my liking. Interesting stuff overall, though.

Great but likely not for the casual, curious musician

This book contains a very high level of scientific detail that felt targeted more toward neuroscientists than musicians.

Thorough, dense, one chapter too many

Enjoyed the topic. It is thorough, but a bit dense for audiobook. Author dedicates the last chapter to the evolutionary foundations of music. Unlike the rest of the book where he backs up ideas with specific studies, any evolutionary speculations are just that, speculations/guesses. There are not direct observations reported and stating conclusions with such confidence, with no evidence makes any scientist look silly.