This Is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession

by Daniel J. Levitin

This Is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession

book data

1001 ratings, 3.62 average rating, 289 reviews (more data...)

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published

September 13th 2007 (first published 2006) by Atlantic Books

binding

Hardcover, 320 pages

isbn

1843547155 (isbn13: 9781843547150)

description

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between musicits performance...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2497)

All ratings | 5 stars (182) | 4 stars (368) | 3 stars (291) | 2 stars (98) | 1 star (17) | avg 3.62

all | this edition

Matthew

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

09/17/07

There's a lot of amazing stuff in this book to contemplate, but the author tries too hard to make it relevant for readers who listen to the Eagles and Mariah Carey (musicians he specifically sites), and he gets caught up in the most mundane details of his personal interactions with his colleagues at meetings and dinners and such, and who ordered what, and how everybody was dressed, and where everybody got their degrees.

My girlfriend got me interested in it because I found her passionate expl...more

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Mike

Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 0452288525)

04/06/08

bookshelves: at-barnes, notes, own

Read in December, 2007

This is a pretty nice book, and I enjoyed reading it. From the reviews I've seen here, the material seems to have passed over most people's heads (by being too rough, or the phrase you'll come across a few times, "I didn't feel like I walked away exclaiming 'eureka!'"... or the book angered more expert readers by its simplicity, but it wasn't meant to talk of new discoveries as much as it was meant for a general public.

The book takes a while for an average person, and I'd say you ...more

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Bruce

Bruce rated it:

(review of isbn 0452288525)

07/23/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: unmusical cognitive scientists

In Daniel Levitin's own words, "This book is about the science of music, from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience…. I'll discuss some of the latest studies I and other researchers in our field have conducted on music, musical meaning, and musical pleasure…. [H:]ow can we account for wide differences in musical preference -- why is it that one man's Mozart is another man's Madonna?" (p. 11) After reading these 270 pages, I'm sure I can't tell you. I'm pretty disappointed, but...more In Daniel Levitin's own words, "This book is about the science of music, from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience…. I'll discuss some of the latest studies I and other researchers in our field have conducted on music, musical meaning, and musical pleasure…. [H:]ow can we account for wide differences in musical preference -- why is it that one man's Mozart is another man's Madonna?" (p. 11) After reading these 270 pages, I'm sure I can't tell you. I'm pretty disappointed, but then I had really high expectations for this book which it failed to meet (I should know by now never to read the back-cover hype, let alone the 4 pages of promotional blurbs that preceded the table of contents).

But before confessing my own failings here, let me lay a little blame at the author's feet. Right off the bat, he states, "It's a shame that many people are intimidated by the jargon musicians, music theorists, and cognitive scientists throw around. There is specialized vocabulary in every field of inquiry (try to make sense of a full blood-analysis report from your doctor). But in the case of music, music experts and scientists could do a better job of making their work accessible. That is something I tried to accomplish in this book." (p. 10) Levitin also talks about harboring a preference for identifying how the brain interprets moving air molecules as music and the behavioral/emotional significance/origins of this auditory processing over simply mapping where in the brain music triggers neurons.

To that, I say, ha, ha, and double-ha. We take you live to a typical passage (p. 191), which begins as follows: "We found exactly what we had hoped. Listening to music caused a cascade of brain regions to become activated in a particular order: first, auditory cortex for initial processing of the components of the sound. Then the frontal regions, such as BA44 and BA47, that we had previously identified as being involved in processing musical structure and expectations. Finally, a network of regions -- the mesolimbic system -- involved in arousal, pleasure, and the transmission of opiods and the production fo dopamine, culminating in activation in the nucleus accumbens. And the cerebellum and basal ganglia were active throughout, presumably supporting the processing of rhythm and meter."

If you got that, this book is for you (but not me, alas). Levitin devotes the first 1/5 of this book to defining musical terms (tuning, timbre, scale) he will not really use later. It's interesting, but cognitively irrelevant. There is some fun anecdotal stuff buried in here (did you know that if you chop off the 'attack' of a piano from a recording and just play the body of the pitch, it sounds indistinguishable from a flute? did you know that music appreciation and sociability are closely correlated?), but the questions posed in the introduction are never answered. Is music a by-product of speech, etc. or a seminal human intuition? Ummm… not sure. How and when are music preferences established? Ummm… mostly from exposure during one's teens, but possibly also from that in the womb, early childhood, and later in life. Why? Don't know. Repetition, perhaps?

I give this book 2 stars for the extensive annotated bibliography at the end and (ironically, considering the author's stated subject matter preferences) the trivially-interesting pictographic brain mappings of music function in the appendix. What a bummer.
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Jessica

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

02/18/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

People often ask me about how I can be a musician and into sign language. It occurs for them like there is a dichotomy at play. I've never experienced my work in either area to be at odds with the other.

This week I'm reading the coolest book I've read in a while: This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. He was once a musician and sound engineer, but now is a neuroscientist (another set of odd-bedfellow occupations). A Publishers Weekly review says "This is likely the only book ...more

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Ken

Ken rated it:

03/24/08

Read in March, 2008

This is one of those books that I think is a valuable read but not necessarily an enjoyable one..at least for the general reader. If you bring a background in neuroscience then this is a treasure chest of information. My personal interest lies in music specifically and I saw this as an opportunity to better understand how our brains engage with music. Coupled with Oliver Sacks collection "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" we begin to unlock the mysterious properties of music to h...more

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Pam

Pam rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

02/23/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Scientists?

I really despise myself for giving what should be an awesome book only 2 stars. I know I am mentally feeble, but was this ever dry!!! Interesting topic - neuroscience & music - but the author did go on at times (too much music theory, god I hated studying that and I'm a musician) and took the scientific aspects to a degree where I often found myself stopping to ponder "what the hell is he talking about?" It read like it could be someone's dissertation. The second half is slightly m...more

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J rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

12/27/07

Read in December, 2007

Have you ever wondered how you can listen to an orchestra and pick out the melody, or pick out the violins from the whole ensemble, or pick out the first violin from the violin section, or separate the orchestra from the car alarm outside? If you ever wondered about music and why it is so appealing to us, you'll find this book interesting.

Beginning with the basics of how musicians and scientists define music, it moves on to discuss how our brain and mind have evolved to understand music, ...more

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Mattie

Mattie rated it:

(review of isbn 0452288525)

07/03/08

Read in July, 2008

Really cool book on the the brain's relationship with and to music. Although written for a general audience, Levitan doesn't significantly dumb down or shy away from the neuroscience at the very heart of the book. At the same time, Levitan let's a very wry, witty sense of humor season his writing. Finally, he's got both the musical and scientific chops to understand the subject matter from both sides. This means there's enough science and detail to impart some pretty technical information, bu...more

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3 comments

Seth

Seth rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

12/22/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: people love science and music.

Levitin goes too far out of his way to make the book appeal to the layman. His tone isn't condescending, but he came across as an academic out of his element. Much of the research he cites is very fascinating. When it's all said and done though, I didn't walk away feeling like I had a much better grasp of what my brain is actually like on music. Levitin spends most of the book citing other research and did not assert his own opinions until the very end. I found his own views fascinating, bu...more

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KIM

KIM rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

07/21/07

bookshelves: non-fiction

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: anyone interested in music, but especially musicians

This is full a lot of technical information about the brain, but I've learned some interesting facts. 1)Humans have never existed without music. 2)It has only been in the past 500 or so years that we have differentiated between music-makers and music listeners. 3) Scientists are still unclear why we evolved an ability to make, understand or appreciate music. They theorize it may be tied into mating rituals since those who make music and dance well seem to attract more mates--even today. Ther...more

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Emily

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

01/31/08

Read in January, 2008

I found myself reading this book very, very quickly. Why? Well, the sections explaining the language and technical aspects of music all consisted of information I already knew, so I zipped through them. The sections explaining the science of the brain while playing or listening to music were so over my head that I subconsciously decided to speed-read rather than really engage with the complexity of the material. And this is neuroscience for dummies! All that said, the work and studies done...more

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Lindy Loo

Lindy Loo rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

10/17/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: music-lovers

Even just the idea behind this book was fascinating. I kind of just haven't really ever given thought to the fact that our brain's attraction to music is kind of a strange and inexplicable thing. Levitin touches on a myriad of really fascinating music-related topics in this book, discussing why it is that we like the music we like, the ways in which music stimulates various regions of the brain, why even just the average person has an "instinctual" afficiando-esque connection with th...more

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Jo rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

06/20/08

bookshelves: humanity

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: All my music loving friends, anyone who is interested in different ways the brain works

Very good intro book into music and the brain. Discusses topics such as how we may process music, why do we like certain types of music and dislike others, does music serve an evolutionary purpose, what areas of the brain are involved in different aspects of music making and how damaging the brain can affect certain abilities and leave others fully intact, and what may make a professional caliber musician versus what may not. Super entertaining!

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Clara

Clara rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

11/06/07

bookshelves: 2007, dc-public-library, read-it-in-dc

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: any cog neuro student like myself

I enjoyed reading this book a lot because it effectively addresses some core cognitive neuroscience questions I'm just beginning to appreciate, namely categorization and expertise; however a few sections struck me as sloppy and poorly written. That said, it's a great read because it's a quick read, and impossible to put down!

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Catherine

Catherine is currently reading it (review of isbn 0525949690)

07/21/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

For musicians and science geeks, this deals with the physical science of music as well as the biological aspects of how we perceive music. Not a light read, but fascinating.

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Powells.com

Powells.com rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

11/24/08

A revelation for music buffs and science geeks — and all the better if you happen to be both. How do memory and music work together? What makes timbre? How do writers like Lennon and McCartney, or John Coltrane and Miles Davis, manipulate our expectations to create truly original compositions? Why do some melodies elicit consistent emotional responses across cultures, race, gender, and age? Before he became a neuroscientist, Daniel J. Levitin was a music producer and professional musician. Thi...more

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Gloria

Gloria rated it:

(review of isbn 0452288525)

08/18/08

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: Matias, Mason and the Maelstrom

Three stars only because there is *so* much information and I feel my brain is inadequate to absorb it all! His writing does ramble a bit, but overall there is a great deal of fascinating things.

For those who are not trained musicians, he does a nice job of explaining basic theory (although it is a little spread out through the book).

Really a fascinating read for me, who is relearning an instrument after 30 years, and have a deep appreciation for a scientific approach in looking at thing...more

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2 comments

Mark

Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

07/28/08

Daniel Levitin's book contains a wealth of interesting information geared towards lovers of music who also have a curiosity about how music affects and is interpreted by your brain. The two topics, music and the brain, initially are discussed in a text-book fashion to ensure the reader is up to speed in both. For music, there is crash course on theory; for the brain, a crash course on its neural network. Both are interesting, though at times a bit dry. When the two are fused, the writing, while ...more Daniel Levitin's book contains a wealth of interesting information geared towards lovers of music who also have a curiosity about how music affects and is interpreted by your brain. The two topics, music and the brain, initially are discussed in a text-book fashion to ensure the reader is up to speed in both. For music, there is crash course on theory; for the brain, a crash course on its neural network. Both are interesting, though at times a bit dry. When the two are fused, the writing, while often wandering and weighted by anecdotes, is full of the writer's passion for both. Some reviewers accuse Levitin of name-dropping and self aggrandizement, of which I found very little. To me he comes across as a writer who genuinely loves music, those who make it, and those who study it from a scientific perspective.

I am a huge music lover and I was hoping this book would help me understand why I like some music and not other music, and Levitin provides a convincing answer. He also, contrary to at least one other reviewer, answers the question of why songs get stuck in one's head and why some songs stand the test of time while others fade away.

While the content of the book is what I was looking for, the writing on occasion seems to stagnate or be disjointed. Short stories from the author's experiences are scattered throughout the book with enjoyable humor and wit, but they have a tendency to interrupt a topic or point. By the time the anecdote is complete the reader may have to stop for a moment to recall how the story is relevant to the current topic. This at times stagnates the writing and at others makes the writing feel disjointed. At other times the anecdotes fit in just fine. Also, some points are made more than once at various times in the book, again, lending to a feeling of disjointedness, or wordiness.

To his credit, Levitin does not have a snob mentality that might proclaim only Mozart or Coltrane to be "good" music. Example songs to prove his points are culled from an impressively wide array of well known music from classic rock to jazz to classical to blues to punk to hip hop to metal and more. Most every reader should be familiar with a large number of them, which makes the book fun to read and Levitin's points easy to understand. He also does an admirable job of not dismissing any genre or artist as being less worthy than another. Bravo.

In all, a satisfying read with a wealth of interesting information, such as in the final chapter where Levitin covers the question of music and evolution, which is an example of something I didn't expect to learn about but found fascinating. Perhaps a better editor would have made this a four or five star book....less

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Bettie

Bettie rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

07/22/08

bookshelves: non-fiction--science, psychology

Read in July, 2008

In this unprecedented meeting of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscietist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music -- its performances, its compositions, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it -- and the human brain. Drawing on the lastest research Levitin reveals:

- How composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world
- Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers
- Why 10,000 hours of practice, rather than talent, is the key to musical expertise
- How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head

Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, a sort of parasite on the human brain, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This is Your Brain on Music is an ear-opening, mind-blowing investigation into an obsession at the center of our human nature.

Live music demos performed by the author.

Abridged. Approximately 6 hours. ...more

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Jessica

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

07/11/08

Read in July, 2008

Loved the book--I found so many things that were fascinating and I kept reading them aloud to the annoyance of everyone around me. It has definitely changed the way I listen to music and how I think about it and it really makes me impressed with the people who write it. It also makes me so glad I chose to include exposure to music (both formal and informal) in my kids' lives starting in infancy.
It's VERY hard reading--the bulleted list of topics on the back cover make it seem like a much mor...more

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