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The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
 
 
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The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: musical brain, knowledge songs, accent structure, United States, Walk the Line, David Huron (more...)
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Frequently Bought Together

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature + This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession + Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition
Price For All Three: $35.70

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  • This item: The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature by Daniel J. Levitin

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Charles Darwin meets the Beatles in this attempt to blend neuroscience and evolutionary biology to explain why music is such a powerful force. In this rewarding though often repetitious study by bestselling author Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music), a rock musician turned neuroscientist, argues that music is a core element of human identity, paving the way for language, cooperative work projects and the recording of our lives and history. Through his studies, Levitin has identified six kinds of songs that help us achieve these goals: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. He cites lyrics ranging from the songs of Johnny Cash to work songs, which, he says, promote feelings of togetherness. According to Levitin, evolution may have selected individuals who were able to use nonviolent means like dance and music to settle disputes. Songs also serve as memory-aids, as records of our lives and legends. Some may find Levitin's evolutionary explanations reductionist, but he lightens the science with personal anecdotes and chats with Sting and others, offering an intriguing explanation for the power of music in our lives as individuals and as a society. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Fans that have read This Is Your Brain on Music are in for another treat; newcomers to Levitin will still find much to enjoy in this consideration of music and human civilization. Levitin writes with both knowledge of neuroscience and evolutionary biology and a deep appreciation for the musician’s craft—one that will resound loudly with musicophiles. The New York Times Book Review, however, questioned some of Levitin’s “unprovable” scientific claims, and others faulted him for taking a reductionist view of evolution, shamelessly namedropping, cherry-picking songs from a select era, and failing to edit a verbose tome. Despite such flaws, most readers will find something to connect with in the book—even if it’s just one song.
Copyright 2008 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Dutton Adult; First edition (August 19, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0525950737
  • ISBN-13: 978-0525950738
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #225,539 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #89 in  Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Acoustics & Sound

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More About the Author

Daniel J. Levitin
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
musical brain, knowledge songs, accent structure, friendship songs, religion songs
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Walk the Line, David Huron, Joni Mitchell, Ian Cross, Neil Young, World War, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Pete Seeger, San Francisco, Rodney Crowell, David Byrne, God Bless America, North America, Kent State, Guy Clark, Boy's Room, Paul Simon, Big Science, Rosanne Cash, Timothy Leary, Irving Berlin, Hank Williams, Happy Birthday
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
73% buy the item featured on this page:
The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature 3.6 out of 5 stars (19)
$14.65
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
16% buy
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession 3.6 out of 5 stars (138)
$10.88
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition
6% buy
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Revised and Expanded Edition 4.2 out of 5 stars (125)
$10.17
Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination
2% buy
Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination 3.6 out of 5 stars (45)
$10.54
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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
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 (7)
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 (4)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Songs in the key of life, August 24, 2008
By Julie Neal (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
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This fascinating book explores the powerful force music has played in shaping our common humanity. It's evolution, with a backbeat. Author Levitin makes the case that six basic types of songs have existed throughout the course of human history, all over the world. Mankind, apparently, shares a soundtrack.

The six broad categories of music are songs about friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. Each has a different function, but all serve to bind us together. They make us stronger as a species.

Levitin, a musician and scientist, cites anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, neurosurgeons, psychologists, and many famous musicians in this book. He includes lyrics from a great range of songs, including "At Seventeen," "The Hokey Pokey," "I Walk the Line," "Twist and Shout," and "Log Blues" from Ren & Stimpy.

Music can be so evocative. A snippet of song can take you back to the exact moment you heard it in childhood or high school or whenever. It's like there is a direct link that exists in the human brain between music and memory.

This books tells us that Americans spend more money on music than they do on prescription drugs or sex, and the average American hears more than five hours of music per day. It's obviously important to us. After reading The World in Six Songs, you'll have a much better idea why.

Here's the chapter list:

1. Taking It from the Top or "The Hills Are Alive..."
2. Friendship or "War (What Is It Good For)?"
3. Joy or "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut"
4. Comfort or "Before There Was Prozac, There Was You"
5. Knowledge or "I Need to Know"
6. Religion or "People Get Ready"
7. Love or "Bring `Em All In"
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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Unsupported Assertions, Anecdotes and Puffery, January 19, 2009
Like many other reviewers here I was entranced by Levitin's first book, and eagerly dug into this new one expecting more of the same. What a disappointment! One is immediately put off by the constant name-dropping like "my good friend Joni Mitchell," "Sting confided to me..." and "when I was on-stage at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with Mel Tormé...."

Add to this the fact that Levitin makes a lot of non-obvious broad statements without offering any supporting evidence; for examples snapping fingers to music uses up cortisol (pg. 101), cavemen used songs to remember geography (pg. 108), it is more difficult to fake sincerity in music than in spoken language (pg. 141) and of course the "there are only six types of songs in the world" assertion of the title.

Finally, Levitin keeps derailing the book with long rambling personal stories, most of which have little if anything to do with his subject matter. Though amusing and humanizing they are a distraction and ultimately become another irritant.

There *is* a lot of good information in the book, and the reader learns a lot of interesting facts and ponderable hypotheses. Too bad the presentation is so obnoxious.
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars unreadable exercise in ego, February 8, 2009
By Brian Tarbox (Littleton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I keep trying to like this book, or even to get through another chapter but wading past the author's ego is just too hard. Is the best way to illustrate every point to mention that you just had lunch with Sting?

I'll grant the author's encyclopedic knowledge of songs but he insists on putting in the reader's face at every turn. Every point he makes reminds him of not one or two other songs but typically 10 or eleven other songs, which he lists, along with the fact that he's close personal friends with each of the authors.

You might think the premise of this book is the centrality of music to human evolution but the real point is to illustrate the centrality of the author's ego.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not much of a sequal
I loved Levitin's first book "This is Your Brain on Music". The "name-dropper" claim from some reviewers was unfair, because scientists instinctively cite every idea that was not... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jay A. Haron

4.0 out of 5 stars THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE BY DANIEL J. LEVITIN
Bestselling author of This is Your Brain on Music (which continues to be popular) returns with The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, in which he... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Alex Telander

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
This book was one of the best I have ever read about song, the psychology of song, and the import of song in society and the development of civilization. Read more
Published 4 months ago by L. Perfetti

3.0 out of 5 stars The World in Six Songs
Author Daniel Levitin describes the functions that music plays in our culture, citing a considerable amount of research, while describing and illustrating a scheme for... Read more
Published 4 months ago by -_Tim_-

4.0 out of 5 stars In a nutshell
"Music is important in the daily lives of most people in the world, and has been throughout human history. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bijal P. Shah

4.0 out of 5 stars The World in Six Songs, by Daniel Levitin
This is an enjoyable, very interesting and thought-provoking book by someone who knows music from both the commercial/industry and scientific sides. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A2900

5.0 out of 5 stars This could be one of the most interactive books you will read.
If you enjoyed his, This Is Your Brain On Music, here is the next one to extend your learning. It is about six types of songs and how they perhaps came about as we evolved The six... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Reg Nordman

3.0 out of 5 stars Not What You Were Hoping For . . .
I LOVED Levitin's prior book (This is Your Brain on Music). I bought it for multiple friends. So I was excited to see this arguable follow-up. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Non-Fiction Focused Reader

1.0 out of 5 stars Pseudo-Science
The goal of this book is to show how music has shaped human behavior and cultures as we know them. Unfortunately Levitin does not have a behavioral perspective and fails to... Read more
Published 9 months ago by XraySpex

4.0 out of 5 stars Music on brain continued.
Loved the book! I would like to meet the author. He has a lot to tell. Mr. Levitin has made a great effort here. My wife, daughter, and sister-in-law teach music. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Douglas F. Buie

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