In his enthralling and revelatory This is Your Brain on Music Daniel Levitin unpicked the pathways of the brain to reveal how human beings have been hard-wired for music.
Now, in an astonishing blend of art and science, he unveils his revolutionary theory of ‘Six Songs’, and describes how music played a pivotal role in the creation of human culture and society.
Dividing the sum total of human musical achievement, from Beethoven to The Beatles, Busta Rhymes to Bach, into just six fundamental forms, Levitin illuminates, through songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love, how music has been instrumental in the evolution of language, thought and culture. And how, far from being a bit of a song and dance, music is at the core of what it means to be human.
A one-time record producer, now a leading neuroscientist, Levitin has composed a catchy and startlingly ambitious narrative that weaves together Darwin and Dionne Warwick, memoir and biology, anthropology and a jukebox of anecdote to create nothing less than the ‘soundtrack of civilisation’.
The World in Six Songs will change the way you listen to music for ever.
Daniel Levitin is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University. Before entering academia he worked as a session musician, sound engineer and record producer. He lives in Montreal, Canada.
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‘This is the worst idea for a book I’ve ever heard – it makes me want to vomit. The idea encapsulates the very worst part of Western thought.’
One week later…
‘I take it back – I’m sorry! This is great!’
‘Without music we would be little more than animals. Mr Levitin explains it beautifully’
(Sir George Martin )‘This is a fascinating, entertaining book, and some of its most inventive themes may stay stuck in your head forever, something like a well-loved song’
(Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.About the Author
Daniel Levitin is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University. Before entering academia he worked as a session musician, sound engineer and record producer, and has fourteen gold and platinum records to his credit. He has played professionally with Mel Tormé, Blue Öyster Cult and David Byrne, and has worked on albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Santana, Midnight Oil and The Carpenters. He has published extensively in scientific journals such as Science and Neuron and audio trade journals such as Grammy, Billboard and Audio, and is the author of the bestselling This Is Your Brain On Music, and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature.
--This text refers to the
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Shaky
Format:Paperback
A great eye opener into how music shaped our past and how we are influenced constantly by music today , be it personally or professionaly.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Gardenque
Format:Paperback
I'd previously read and enjoyed 'This is Your Brain on Music' by the same author so it seemed natural to buy this one too. A quick flick through the index told me that there were contributions by Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell - so all the signs were good. For some reason, however, I put off buying it for some time (until I got in cheap on E-bay actually). I have to say that I'm pleased I did: I'd have hated to pay full price for such a disappointing book.
It seems as though the author feels he has to remind us on every other page about how "Natural selection has favoured those who were able to... etc. etc." Okay, so it is the point of the book but it can still become tedious after a while. When somebody persistently tries to shoehorn everything into one system then the result can start to resemble superstition. My impression was that the author could have made the book half as long and it would have been twice as good. There are occasional nuggets in the book but these are few and far between. Unlike another reviewer, I actually enjoyed reading the song lyrics: they provided a welcome break from the proselytizing. Oh, and nitpicking it may be but there were more than a few typos scattered throughout the text.
It seems as though the author feels he has to remind us on every other page about how "Natural selection has favoured those who were able to... etc. etc." Okay, so it is the point of the book but it can still become tedious after a while. When somebody persistently tries to shoehorn everything into one system then the result can start to resemble superstition. My impression was that the author could have made the book half as long and it would have been twice as good. There are occasional nuggets in the book but these are few and far between. Unlike another reviewer, I actually enjoyed reading the song lyrics: they provided a welcome break from the proselytizing. Oh, and nitpicking it may be but there were more than a few typos scattered throughout the text.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Lark
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is five CD audiobook, the cover is a cardboard box and in it a paper sleave with the CDs in pockets.
I was aggrieved when I tried to use this CD with iTunes and found that the titles of the tracks on the disk could not be found in iTunes database, I listened to it rather than choosing to transfer the contents to my iPod. This is disappointing and an inconvenience but needs to be considered apart from the audiobook itself and narration, which can still be informative, interesting and entertaining besides.
However, while there is a lot of interesting material here from speculation about the origins of music and song through mankinds movement from symbolism to language to how oral traditions work, how music proves to be memorable etc. it does become tedious very quickly, there is reptition too and I could not help but think the narrator adds to this too.
There is content which I thought should be more interesting that it sounded, that is I would listen to content, think about it and relisten to it because I knew the information being imparted was important but you could easily have missed it as there is a sort of drone factor to contest with. There is little reprieve from this, for instance emotion creeps in or when discussing memorising information with songs the songs are sang, its very brief and just a rhymn.
This did not spoile the audiobook for me but I dont believe there is a lot of relistening value and I dont believe that it was that memorable either, it did effect my enjoyment of the material too. That said I believe that if I had been reviewing the book I would have found it the same too.
I was aggrieved when I tried to use this CD with iTunes and found that the titles of the tracks on the disk could not be found in iTunes database, I listened to it rather than choosing to transfer the contents to my iPod. This is disappointing and an inconvenience but needs to be considered apart from the audiobook itself and narration, which can still be informative, interesting and entertaining besides.
However, while there is a lot of interesting material here from speculation about the origins of music and song through mankinds movement from symbolism to language to how oral traditions work, how music proves to be memorable etc. it does become tedious very quickly, there is reptition too and I could not help but think the narrator adds to this too.
There is content which I thought should be more interesting that it sounded, that is I would listen to content, think about it and relisten to it because I knew the information being imparted was important but you could easily have missed it as there is a sort of drone factor to contest with. There is little reprieve from this, for instance emotion creeps in or when discussing memorising information with songs the songs are sang, its very brief and just a rhymn.
This did not spoile the audiobook for me but I dont believe there is a lot of relistening value and I dont believe that it was that memorable either, it did effect my enjoyment of the material too. That said I believe that if I had been reviewing the book I would have found it the same too.
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3.1 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to understand
This book is fantastic, just like Levitin's 'This is your brain on music' this book is easy to understand which makes it an easy read and really interesting.
Published on 21 May 2010 by C. Underwood
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS (book)
I don't remember buying this one, but the description "How The Musical Brain Created Human Nature" certainly sounds interesting. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2009 by Eejram
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