Whether you listen to Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life--even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last becoming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, this book unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain's response to music? Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure? Neuroscientist and former recording engineer Levitin explores music across cultures, brain disorders and developmental levels to unlock deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.--From publisher description.

This book explores the connection between music - its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals: How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world; Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre; That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise; How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head.