The World in Six Songs, Daniel J. Levitin
The World in Six Songs, Daniel J. Levitin
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The World in Six Songs
How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Author: Daniel J. Levitin

Narrator: Daniel J. Levitin

Unabridged: 10 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 02/16/2021


Synopsis

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 delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.

Here he identifies six fundamental song functions or types—friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love—then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these “six songs” work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species.

Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work in an array of related fields; his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business; and illuminating interviews with musicians such as Sting and David Byrne, as well as conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The World in Six Songs is, ultimately, a revolution in our understanding of how human nature evolved—right up to the iPod.

About The Author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and bestselling author. He is Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI in San Francisco, and Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, A Field Guide to Lies, and Successful Aging. He divides his time between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Adam on March 09, 2009

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed at my second encounter with Daniel Levitin's musical exploration. While from a psychological standpoint I wholly agree that music has played an undeniable role in human evolution, I for some reason find the overall concept of this book to be, almost, silly. Sure,......more

Goodreads review by Bill on May 24, 2016

The interesting facts and theories feel bogged down in a dense forest of other interesting tidbits and tangents. I read the whole book but it felt like a first draft in need of a focus driven editor to help shape the narrative of each chapter. All the info contained is good but the order and flow ma......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on February 14, 2009

This book I half liked. The part about the songs we love as human beings, the types that run through all sorts of cultures and times. That was great as the author has a wonderfully diverse sense of music and really went to great lengths to insure he was well rounded in talking about songs the world......more

Goodreads review by David on February 22, 2009

Readable analysis by a neuroscientist/musician/music-cognition-researcher classifying the world's music by song type (friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, love) and speculating on how our enjoyment of each could reflect evolutionary processes. Read skeptically, there is a lot of "just-so" s......more

Goodreads review by Bob on August 27, 2017

Summary: Proposes that all the world's songs can be grouped into six categories, and explores the evolutionary, cultural, and musical reasons for each category. According to Daniel J. Levitin, I could reorganize the music in my collection into six categories--at least the music meant to be sung. They......more


Quotes

“A must-read...A literary, poetic, scientific, and musical treat.”—Seattle Times

“Masterful...Eminently enjoyable.”—Los Angeles Times

“Why can a song make you cry in a matter of seconds? Six Songs is the only book that explains why.”—Bobby McFerrin, ten-time Grammy Award-winning artist (“Don't Worry, Be Happy”)

“A fantastic ride.”—New Scientist

“Leading researchers in music cognition are already singing its praises.”—Evolutionary Psychology

“Exquisitely well-written and easy to read, serving up a great deal of scientific information in a gentle way for those of us who are—or just think we are—a bit science-phobic.”—Huffington Post

“Fascinating. Provides a biological explanation for why we might tap our feet or bob our heads in time with a favorite song, how singing might soothe a baby, and how music emboldens soldiers or athletes preparing for conflict.”—Associated Press

“An exemplary mix of scientist and artist, student and teacher, performer and listener.”—Library Journal (starred review)