This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher: Plume/Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  108 reviews
Sales Rank: 727
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 322
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0452288525
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.11
EAN: 9780452288522
ASIN: 0452288525
Publication Date: August 28, 2007
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Product Description
In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between musicits performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy itand the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:
How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our heads
And, taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This Is Your Brain on Music is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 103 more reviews...
 SHOULD, perhaps MUST know music terminology November 11, 2008
this book is extremely informational....however, it REALLY helps if you understand music terminology.....Although the aurhter defines some of the terminology, it still helps to understand more about music than an average person.
 Excellent informative read! October 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really loved this book because unlike many books related to this subject it has not been too watered down. It is accessible but still contains loads of information. Somehow Levitin has managed to fit an 800 hundred page draft into a 200 page book! I will continue to refer to this book for a long time to come.
 Interesting & informative, but at points difficult to grasp October 21, 2008
This book satisfactorily examines the components of music and the brain's perception of them. Though I wish that some of the song examples used would have been more contemporary so that I could better follow what the author was describing in terms of musical mechanics, I really enjoyed the book and found it very enlightening. I have been reminded of its contents while I listen to music and it has also spawned many discussions among my friends and me.
The book is written in three key parts: mechanics of music, the combination of its components and the resulting personalization of music to an individual, and the evolutionary origin of music. The first part of the book begins by explaining the components of music such as pitch, loudness, timbre, rhythm, tempo, and contour. The author uses examples, such as songs by Rossini, Beethoven, Queen, Buddy Holly, etc, to convey how each of these components fits into musical composition, and then continues by discussing the structures and regions of the brain that are involved in processing these mechanisms. The book extends these topics to discuss how combining them allows for anticipation or expectations within a musical piece, subjective categorization of music, the definition of a musician, music-induced emotions, and why certain types of music become our favorites. Daniel Levitin closes the book by focusing on music's presence throughout history and its biological and societal importance through time. The structure of the book is well planned and conducive to a reader's understanding. However, even though the book was intended for the layperson, it seemed that anyone without a basic knowledge of music and biology would find it difficult to follow.
The Mechanics of Music
Levitin does a descent job of describing basic components of music such as pitch, loudness, timbre, rhythm, etc. The book begins by introducing the concept of pitch in an almost exhausting manner. The author brings up some interesting points such as the concept of sound. He argues that sound, and more specifically pitch, is merely a production of the brain and its interpretation of the vibration of molecules at a particular frequency. I found the argument stimulating.
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Simply, no--sound is a mental image created by the brain in response to vibrating molecules."
The analysis of rhythm, meter, and tempo however are a bit more difficult to follow. These can be difficult concepts to grasp through text, and the author tries to make it easier by using examples such as "Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson), "Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley), and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The success of these examples soon becomes lost when the author begins to use less known songs to convey the concept of melody, such as "For No One" (The Beatles) or "One Note Samba" (Antonio Carlos Jobim). Due to unfamiliarity, I found the description of these examples and concepts difficult to grasp, despite having about 5 years of music training. My academic background is primarily in biomedical engineering though, so its entirely possible that upon comparison of music terminology with neuroscience, the music terms seemed harder to comprehend.
Music perception from the ear to the ear drum and the auditory cortex is also discussed in this section. I felt that an appropriate amount of information was given to help the reader learn the basics of neurobiology while keeping the details to a minimum.
Anticipation, Categorization, and Personalization of Music
In this section, the author discusses the combination of musical elements to convey different emotions. He suggests that each individual forms a schema or framework of music in their minds from birth, and that this schema allows a person to anticipate what comes next in a musical piece. He talks about composer's manipulation of a person's anticipations to either satisfy their expectations or upset them, creating emotions. He also proposes that categorizing songs into genres is a subjective concept because each person's brain interprets the elements of music differently according to their schema. These are entertaining discussions, but yet are somewhat convoluted with unclear descriptions of concepts such as time signatures, and rhythm counting (i.e. half-beats or off-beats, etc
The section is redeemed by addressing the personalization of music. The author discusses research studies that address how exposure of music to us as fetuses, infants, and teenagers progressively outlines our taste in music. I liked how he addressed a study that showed that listening to classical music as a young child enhanced intelligence:
"I found [it] a bit offensive because the implication was that music should not be studied in and of itself, or for its own right, but only if it could help people to do better on other, `more important' things...If I claimed that studying mathematics helped musical ability, would policy makers start pumping money into math for that reason?"
Though it was a point of view that I hadn't thought of before, I definitely see his point. He goes on to discuss the effect of musical training on the development of structures of the brain (corpus callosum, etc) to argue that there are more than enough reasons to have some training in music.
Music in Evolution
In this section of the book the author argues against the point of view introduced in The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker, that music is merely a by-product of language. Levitin argues that music is more necessary to society than just a by-product, playing a role in sexual selection as a sign of sexual fitness and by promoting cognitive ability. He notes one study in which women were presented with fictional descriptions of potential male mates and were asked to rank each candidate on attractiveness. One candidate was described as having significant creative intelligence, an artist or musician of sorts, but who was without money due to bad luck. The other candidate was described as having average creative intelligence and a significant amount of wealth due to luck. The results showed that at peak fertility, women were likely to choose the candidate with more creative intelligence for a short-term mate, suggesting the potential importance of creative ability such as music and art in sexual selection.
I recommend this book for those curious about why music is important to us as individuals as well as a society and how biology has allowed this to be so, though if you have no background or knowledge of biology and/or music it may be difficult to follow. I suggest that readers buy the book as it is likely that you'll write in it and revisit it as I have. The book is well organized in terms of understanding, but in terms of content I felt that chapters 5 (about categorizing music) and 7 (about the definition of an expert musician) were superfluous and I would recommend skipping over them. I didn't feel these chapters contributed much to the central point of the book, the neurological understanding of music processing. In summary, the book was a good read; it's informative and enables you to think about music and its importance with a more enlightened and scientific point of view.
Your Brain on Music August 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a fascinating book more so because I am a deafened adult. I had my memories when I lost all hearing in 1977. Experiences I've had since seem weird to me because I remember. Now I understand why. This is a very informative book from both the music lover and indifferent listener points of view.
A different perspective August 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In the first chapter, he made some statements about music that I know to be wrong, so I was tempted to quit, but I thought that perhaps he may still have something interesting to say--I think of the difference between a "satellite view" map and a "street view" map. He has had many interesting things to say, and I am even suspicious that his "errors" at the beginning were an intentional simplification. Even though written for the "layman," it's still pretty heavy reading--and much more focused on the brain's processes than on how music works.
A bit heavy on name-dropping (he started out as a producer), and more "don't know what's happening here" than I hoped for (but I appreciate the honesty). Interesting--but perhaps specialized: it could easily be a different book than you're expecting.
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