Week 4 – This is Your Brain on Music
Hello everyone! Welcome back!
This past week has been light on the research aspect since I was waiting for my IRB and survey to get approved. So, to better understand music more, I decided to pick up a book on music and the mind, to read and gain a deeper comprehension of the cognitive and neurological aspects of music. The book I chose is the New York Times Bestseller This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin, a polymath who is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, writer, musician, and record producer. Currently, I’ve been reading the Introduction.
In the beginning, I learned how similar artists and scientists were. Dr. Levitin writes that both artists and scientists are always exploring and experimenting. Artists pick apart a painting, diving into color analysis and perspective, while scientists pick apart their work, being precise in their measurements and analyzing every single trial they conduct. Even their environments are the same: the art studio and laboratory require special tools and are “messy” with incomplete projects. Also, an important aspect of the two is the fact that their work is always open to interpretation and they are both flexible to change. Dr. Levitin states how while artists and scientists pursue the truth, they both understand that “truth in its very nature is contextual and changeable… that today’s truth [can] become tomorrow’s disproven hypotheses or forgotten objets d’art.” He later writes examples like the overturned theories of Piaget, Freud, and Skinner and how certain music groups that were so famous back then were never as long-lasting as the past mentioned. In both music and science, whatever gets created doesn’t state the truth forever but instead states a “truth for now.” As the world progresses, so will music and science.
Later, Dr. Levitin dived into the world of music around us and the reason why he wrote this book. First, music has long been a part of our world. He writes that whenever humans get together, there is always music: weddings, funerals, graduations, sports, marches, dinners, prayers, and more. In the past, before television, music would bring families together. It would be a form of entertainment for families to sit and play music together. However, now music making has become a “reserved activity” with a great emphasis on certain skills and techniques to be called a musician that is “good enough.” So, the rest of us resort to listening and data really proves this right. Dr. Levitin writes how “album sales alone bring in $30 billion a year, and this figure doesn’t even account for concert ticket sales.” We Americans love listening to music, spending hundreds of dollars on CDs or concert tickets that cost us our paychecks or allowances. Then, he tied this fact to how most people who love music profess to know nothing about it. When talking about the neuroscience of music, many people get intimidated by the complex jargon of music theorists and cognitive scientists. So, Dr. Levitin wrote this book to, in a way, simplify and make the work of music experts and scientists more accessible, transparent, and understandable. He hopes to bridge the growing gap between “those who love music (and love to talk about it) and those who are discovering new things about how it works.”
Though this book doesn’t target music on mental health and well-being, I think the neurological aspects that I’ll learn through this book will equip me with a better understanding of why people are so attracted to certain types of music and why/how certain emotions arise when listening to a song. It will indirectly help me with my research.
Now, for future steps, I hope to continue reading more on the book and start my data-collecting process. I just got everything approved so I’m excited to meet my mentor and talk about how we want to share my survey with college students.
That’s all for today. See you next week!
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