This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel J. Levintin

Rarely do I ever buy a book without having previous experience with the author, or utilizing Amazon’s nifty “if you like this, you’ll like..” feature. But, with this particular book, I went forth blindly and pick it up based on my patented “Stephanie Might Like this Attributes” – cute title and fun packaging. Funny enough, this decision making process works equally well for wine...but I digress. Being on an Amtrak train for 2 hours with no Wi-Fi calls for swift action. A quick skim of the back blurb got my attention – “Why yes, I WOULD like to know why certain songs get stuck in my head (earworms). I would also like to know how to remedy the situation! I would like to know why 16 year old white boys in the suburbs feel the need to listen to “gansta-rap” about their hard life on the streets!” I’ve always been a science person (First attempt at a college major: pre-med. Success: negative), and consider myself a huge (read: As in spend the majority of my disposable income on concert tickets and I’m pretty sure Steve Jobs should give me a cut of iTunes profits huge) fan of music. Also,I played the flute for 5 years, so I figured I would still retain basic musical knowledge, and this would be a refresher.

How could I possibly not enjoy this book?

Well, let me tell you, such a feat is possible. In all fairness, I tend to have the patience of a hamster, (Do hamsters have little patience? How long does one run on that little wheel anyway?) and tend to give up on a book if it hasn’t captured my attention in the first, oh, 20 pages. Harsh? Perhaps. But life is too short to struggle through unlikable books that aren’t required reading for scholastic reasons. In this case, I made it substantially further then my patience would normally allow, but like I said, 2 hour Amtrak trips can drive one to perform outstanding feats. My main complains are:

• I’m no longer a student. I have no desire to read anything written in a textbook-like manner. I do have a continuous thirst for knowledge, but have found many a book that can satisfy without me feeling like I should be taking notes for a pop-qu>iz later in the week (which would be such a bummer, man.) The first chapter on music theory and the science behind the nervous system was incredibly dry. While I understand that setting up a foundation for those with zippo musical and/or science knowledge is required, I’m pretty sure a slightly more relaxed style would have done the trick. I’m just trying to read a book for enjoyment, not feel like I’m having a conversation with one of those annoying smarty-pants people who feels the need to demonstrate their big bad brains by using as many $0.50 words as possible. Keep it simple, man. At the end of the day, this is music, not rocket science.
• That really exciting tid bit on the back of the book about earworms? Maybe takes up a paragraph. The book doesn’t focus on the fun-facts to know and learn portion as much as I had thought. I’m sure there are all sorts of interesting facts regarding humans, music, and science...this book isn’t where to find them. The author seems much more intent on name-dropping and discussing his career progression. No one likes a bragger.
• There are a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of musical pieces references throughout this book to provide examples of concepts in action. Unless you have the iPod of champions, there’s a good chance one person won’t be familiar with EVERY piece mentioned (especially if you are one with musical tastes confined to the Top 40 genre). This leads to the reader (or maybe just me) either skimming that reference because she is currently trapped on a train without internet access, or running to her computer to illegally download music (once her internet connection is back up and she’s desperately trying to enjoy this book but it just won’t let her) to understand whatever point is being made. Including a CD would have been nice...but probably would have increased the cost of the book to an unacceptable price.

I tried to like this book. I did. I had high hopes! Science + Music should = Win for Stephanie! This was a big flop, though. I would like to have le boyfriend (and musician extraordinaire) take a peek and give his thoughts, but for now, I’m going to have to go with big thumbs down. I’m beginning to think that understanding the science behind what makes my ears happy may take the enjoyment out of the listening experience. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go let my neurons fire to some happy-ear-making Beatles sound waves, without a care in the world as to, neurologically, why that is.