OPEN SOURCE: Music on the Brain

Summary:

Daniel Levitin -- a musician and record producer turned psychologist -- explains what music does to our brains and what our brains do to music.

Website:

http://www.radioopensource.org/music-on-the-brain/

Tones:

Experimental, Intriguing, Sound Rich

Language:

English

Description:

Daniel Levitin has had the kind of career of which a certain brand of nerdy music lover can only dream. He was a session musician, a sound engineer (for, among others Carlos Santana and The Grateful Dead), a record producer (Blue Oyster Cult, Chris Isaak, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan), an A&R man for a record label... and then he went back to school for the obvious next job: a psychologist who studies what music does to our brains and what our brains do to music. As he explains it, "The point for me isn't to develop a map of the brain, but to understand how it works, how the different regions coordinate their activity together, how the simple firing of neurons and shuttling around of neurotransmitters leads to thoughts, laughter, feelings of profound joy and sadness, and how all these, in turn, can lead us to create lasting, meaningful works of art."

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