This Is Your Brain on Music

This book is one of the biggest influences in my life as a sound designer, musician, neuroscientist, and super curious researcher/creator. Dan’s personal life trajectory mirrors my own love of music and science, and his writing style is so accessible and engaging.

He and I have met personally, signed each other’s books, and are literally and figuratively on the same page. I also love his book, The World in Six Songs, a deep dive into how and why music affects us emotionally, culturally, and socially, which is very pertinent to sound design storytelling and portraying human nature from prehistoric… show more.

I love this book because it explores the brain science behind how and why we perceive music and the role it often plays in our lives. I enjoy how he not only explains neuroscience in a clear and engaging way but also connects science with our unique human experience of emotions, memory, and individual taste.

As a neuroscientist and a musician, the author draws me in with his deep understanding and enthusiasm about music. His passion and curiosity shine through in a highly accessible and readable way. 

As a professional record producer turned neuroscientist, Daniel Levitan drew me in with his yin-yang mind. Was the intersection of creativity and science really navigable? Could he dispel the notion, at last, that inspiration is beamed down from a cloud? And how did a guy who worked with Stevie Wonder and Rosanne Cash get to be such a nerd?

I lapped up his explanations about musical ideas traveling along neurons and brain chemicals and how it’s possible that physical sound waves elicit an emotional response. I also realized that science and art are not so opposite.

I think people who… show more.

This book blew my mind when I first read it, and it’s one that I keep on coming back to.

Written in accessible language by one of the most eminent researchers in music and neuroscience, the book explains not just the mechanics of how the brain processes music, but also why it moves us so much. Breaking it all down like this provides a remarkable insight into why music is at the heart of human experience.