This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession
Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist and psychologist, turns his considerable expertise towards one of humanity's oldest and most baffling companions: music. What is it about a sequence of organised sound that can reduce a grown adult to tears, or send a crowd of strangers into collective euphoria? Levitin wants to know, and his curiosity is infectious. The book tackles a question that sounds almost absurdly simple: what do Bach, Depeche Mode and John Cage actually share? From there, it spirals outward into territory that is genuinely surprising. Levitin argues that music predates language as a force in human development, woven into our biology long before we had words for any of it. He traces how musical preferences begin forming before birth, and examines why certain songs feel less like entertainment and more like something happening to your nervous system. This is not a dry academic exercise. Levitin writes with the enthusiasm of someone who has spent years being astonished by his own subject, and that quality carries through every chapter. He draws on examples ranging from Mozart to the Beatles, grounding abstract neuroscience in music that readers will actually recognise. Sting called it 'an eloquent and poetic exploration' of music's evasive, paradox-laden nature, and that description holds up. Classic FM Magazine noted that you'll find yourself listening differently afterwards, and that rings true. Literary Review praised Levitin's central argument that music is no mere modern indulgence but something central to who we are as a species. A thought-provoking read for anyone who has ever wondered why music matters quite so much.
- Author: Daniel Levitin
- Publisher: Penguin
- Genre: Music
- ISBN: 978-0241987353
- Pages: 336 pages