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

In this unprecedented meeting of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music - its performances, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, and U2 to Schoenbert, Metallica, and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" Levitin reveals: how composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world; why we emotionally attach to music we listen to as teenagers; why 10,000 hours of practice - not talent - makes virtuosos; how insidious jingles (aka ear worms) get stuck in our heads. 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 ear-opening, mind-blowing investigation into an obsession at the center of human nature.