Why You Love Music
From Mozart to Metallica--The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A delightful journey through the psychology and science of music, Why You Love Music is the perfect book for anyone who loves a tune.
Music plays a hugely important role in our emotional, intellectual, and even physical lives. It impacts the ways we work, relax, behave, and feel. It can make us smile or cry, it helps us bond with the people around us, and it even has the power to alleviate a range of medical conditions. The songs you love (and hate, and even the ones you feel pretty neutral about) don't just make up the soundtrack to your life -- they actually help to shape it.
In Why You Love Music, scientist and musician John Powell dives deep into decades of psychological and sociological studies in order to answer the question "Why does music affect us so profoundly?" With his relaxed, conversational style, Powell explores all aspects of music psychology, from how music helps babies bond with their mothers to the ways in which music can change the taste of wine or persuade you to spend more in restaurants. Why You Love Music will open your eyes (and ears) to the astounding variety of ways that music impacts the human experience.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 2011's How Music Works, British scientist and musician Powell provided readers with an engaging guide to the science of sound. In this follow-up, he takes the next logical step and explores why music is vital to human beings' emotional, intellectual and physical existence. Chapters range from how music assists patients with Parkinson's disease and depression and why movies are ineffective without sound tracks to such specific details as how Bob Dylan's deliberately out-of-time vocals in "Make You Feel My Love" give listeners a sense of emotional clarity and why the 3:25 mark of "The Birds" by English alt-rock band Elbow gives him goose bumps. Powell draws on decades of other people's research, filtered through his own charming sense of humor, to help readers hear music with fresh ears. Along the way, he also addresses the question of whether musical talent is innate or acquired, and proves that having babies listen to Mozart does not affect their intelligence. He delivers a solid case for why, indeed, people love (and need) music. A lengthy back-end section includes multiple appendices (or "fiddly details," as Powell calls them) about such specific subjects as timbre, harmonizing, and scales and keys, capped by his top five listening suggestions in classical, jazz, and world music.
