The World in Six Songs

By Daniel J. Levitin,

Book cover of The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Book description

The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music’s role in the evolution of human culture in this thought-provoking book that “will leave you awestruck” (The New York Times).

Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The World in Six Songs as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

It’s not really six songs, but six human needs that songs fulfill: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, love—needs that largely define “human nature.” This book combines the perspective of a neuroscientist and musician (Dan Levitin is both), describing why songs may have arisen, and how they impact emotion, memory, and the place of an individual in a society. A song combines music with lyrics—the near relative of a poem. For me (a non-musician), the book was especially useful in clarifying the ways in which song lyrics and poems are both similar and different. Songs derive their power by combining the…

From Keith's list on the creative mind.

Want books like The World in Six Songs?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The World in Six Songs.

Browse books like The World in Six Songs

Book cover of The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain
Book cover of The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms
Book cover of Making Comics

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,355

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in physiology, music, and the brain?

Physiology 88 books
Music 738 books
The Brain 168 books