This Is You Brain On Music Summary

Reading is really not my strong suit and an interest of mine, but I became more interested in it when I was able to choose from a list a books that had to deal with music. For my analytic review, I have decided to choose “This Is You Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” by Daniel Levitin and “Music, the Brain and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination” by Robert Jourdain. I have decided to choose these books because I thought it would be fascinating, just from the titles, about how the brain and our mind reacts to music. Even though the books sounded very interesting to me, it was also very difficult to understand. I don't know if it is because I don't read much or if it was their terminology, but it did take a while to comprehend each author. The first book I decided to read was “This Is Your Brain on Music” because the title of the book was very familiar and I actually saw it in the Benjamin Franklin Institute Museum over the summer in Philadelphia. During the first chapter, I felt very lost because I haven't used any musical terminology since I was in the middle school orchestra. None of the music terminology I used was advanced, so I had to really understand what he was talking about when introducing words I didn't know. Also, …show more content…
The author's perspective of this book definitely shows his background of science and psychology. Since he is a neuroscientist, this allows him to discuss how the brain can function while trying to understand music. After discussing different music terminology and aspects of it, he discusses how we respond to music. There are many valid points that he makes such as which parts of the brain react to music and why, how sound can affect our emotions, understanding sound and how the brain structures it, and how music is an advantage to how we interact as