This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

by Daniel J. Levitin

book data

1,448 ratings, 3.59 average rating, 377 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		18%
4		37%
3		31%
2		10%
1		2%

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published

August 28th 2007 (first published 2006) by Plume Books

binding

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0452288525 (isbn13: 9780452288522)

description

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performanc...more

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09/17/07

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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 passion...more

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3 comments

02/04/08

Mike Bularz rated it:

bookshelves: at-barnes, notes, own

Read in December, 2007

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 have to have some knowledge of chorded instrum...more

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07/06/08

Patricia rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Any musician who has the patience to really pay attention to what the author is saying.

It wasn't until I was half-way through this book that things started to get really interesting. As a musician, the first half was like retaking Music 101, but I felt this was a book I need to read, so I plowed on. I am looking for answers to the questions: "Why, when I near any musical interval, my brain automatically zips through all the tunes I know which start with that interval, and I start humming one of them?" and "Why the hell have I have '76 Trombones' on my mind for th...more

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02/23/08

Pam rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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 more ...more

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02/07/09

Bill rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

bookshelves: keepers

Read in December, 2008

Someone left this behind in the cubby of the plane seat on a flight I took in December. As I'd finished my magazines, I picked it up, and then couldn't put it down. What was most fascinating about the book was the ease at which concepts I'd struggled with years ago were made crisp, clear, and, well, obvious, as they should have been back then. Introductory concepts of music were never made as clear to me than from this. I don't think I could have found a fuller survey of the subject, tying i...more

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12/31/08

Rosie rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

bookshelves: 2009

Read in January, 2009

So far it's off to a sort of dry start. I'm led to believe that it will get better when he starts getting into the subject matter a bit more, but the first chapter is basically a quick and dirty introduction to music theory, most of which I am already quite familiar with. I'll force myself to get into the second chapter and see how it goes from there.

After finishing, I can say this book has a lot of information in it. Levitin explores the Cerebellum's role in processing music, which ...more

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07/07/08

Bruce rated it:

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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03/24/08

Sam rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

bookshelves: music

Read in February, 2008

Seemingly for musicians or composers this book is more fitting a read for scientists and doctors. Not much content is musicianship related. Middle third is a bore.

What I learned:
- There is no sound in space
(there are no molecules to vibrate)
- Virtuosity comes from hours of practice
(talent and absolute pitch play a small role)
- Learning to play an instrument after 20 is hard
(the brain is done developing)
- Percussion is a primitive musical t...more

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02/18/08

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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 on...more

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02/15/08

Ken rated it:

(review of isbn 1843547155)

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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12/07/07

J rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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...more

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10/07/07

Mattie rated it:

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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11/19/07

Seth rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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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06/19/07

KIM rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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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01/27/08

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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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10/15/07

Lindy Loo rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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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01/30/09

James rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

bookshelves: classical-music, psychology

Read in December, 2008

Daniel J. Levitin’s This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession is a fascinating study about what happens in the brain when we listen to music. Levitin, a neuroscientist and former session musician and producer, has crafted an excellent study that both scientists and lay readers whose grasp of science is somewhat limited will find informative.
Perhaps best of all, Levitin’s book doesn’t ruin the enjoyment of listening to music.

Levitin primarily take...more
Daniel J. Levitin’s This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession is a fascinating study about what happens in the brain when we listen to music. Levitin, a neuroscientist and former session musician and producer, has crafted an excellent study that both scientists and lay readers whose grasp of science is somewhat limited will find informative.
Perhaps best of all, Levitin’s book doesn’t ruin the enjoyment of listening to music.

Levitin primarily takes a thematic approach in examining how the brain functions when listening to music. Although the first chapter, which explains the basics of music like pitch, timbre, meter, may be sow-going for the musically-challenged, the remaining chapters are enlightening. With topics including how the brain remembers and recalls music, why music can impact our moods, and why musical preferences can vary from person to person, Levitin explains the processes occurring in the brain without overwhelming the reader with overly-technical and academically-dry details.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter is the final one, which makes a case for the evolutionary origins of music, arguing against scientists who believe music was a happy accident or an unplanned byproduct of language development. Levitin shows how music may have played a role in human survival and evolution, including aiding in cognitive development, serving as a key factor in promoting early human interactions, and giving musical males an extra advantage in the grand reproductive race.

Written for non-experts who might not know the difference between a hippocampus and a hippopotamus, This Is Your Brain On Music successfully manages to explain how we listen to music without reducing music to a series of neurons and brain waves. Levitin writes in an intelligent but not overbearing or condescending tone; his passion for music is apparent throughout the book. An excellent integration of science and music, Levitin’s book examines the brain’s role in listening to and processing music without downplaying any of the emotions we experience when listening to music. I enjoyed the book, particularly the science of the brain and its relation to music.(less)

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05/26/08

Jo rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

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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05/21/09

Reenie rated it:

bookshelves: non-fiction, science

Read in May, 2009

My boyfriend will be very glad that I'm done with this book, since I kept on complaining all the way through as I read it.

It definitely does have some interesting facts and ideas within it, so it's vaguely interesting, but more importantly, it's also profoundly irritating. At least for me. Partly due to some logical or factual errors or selective readings of data, and partly (or maybe mostly, come to think of it) due to something in the demeanour that comes across from the author. He...more

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04/04/09

Greg rated it:

(review of isbn 0525949690)

bookshelves: mind-and-brain

Read in April, 2009

A really amazing book that takes a look at our love of music from a cognitive neuroscientific standpoint. The book was written by a cognitive scientist with an extensive background in the music industry(as a musician, producer, and recording engineer) which makes him pretty damn qualified in my opinion to write about the subject.

The book tackles this subject from all angles, starting with some basics about music and music theory, and then working into the functioning of the auditory ...more

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