The author of the New York Times bestseller (six weeks and counting) and Los Angeles Times Book Award Nominee This Is Your Brain on Music (more than 170,000 copies in print) tunes us in to six evolutionary musical forms that provide a window into the human soul.

An unprecedented blend of science and art, Daniel Levitinas debut, This Is Your Brain on Music, delighted readers with an exuberant guide to the neural impulses behind those songs that make our heart swell. Now he showcases his daring theory of asix songs, a illuminating how the brain evolved to play and listen to music in six fundamental formsafor knowledge, friendship, ceremony, joy, comfort, and love. Preserving the emotional history of our lives and of our species, from its very beginning music was also allied to dance, as the structure of the brain confirms; developing this neurological observation, Levitin shows how music and dance enabled the social bonding and friendship necessary for human culture and society to evolve.

Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitinas sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, and David Byrne, along with classical musicians and conductors, historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The result is a brilliant revelation of the prehistoric yet elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at a wedding or cheer at a concertaor tune out quietly with an iPod.

"Charles Darwin meets the Beatles in this attempt to blend neuroscience and evolutionary biology to explain why music is such a powerful force. In this rewarding though often repetitious study by bestselling author Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music), a rock musician turned neuroscientist, argues that music is a core element of human identity, paving the way for language, cooperative work projects and the recording of our lives and history. Through his studies, Levitin has identified six kinds of songs that help us achieve these goals: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. He cites lyrics ranging from the songs of Johnny Cash to work songs, which, he says, promote feelings of togetherness. According to Levitin, evolution may have selected individuals who were able to use nonviolent means like dance and music to settle disputes. Songs also serve as 'memory-aids,' as records of our lives and legends. Some may find Levitin's evolutionary explanations reductionist, but he lightens the science with personal anecdotes and chats with Sting and others, offering an intriguing explanation for the power of music in our lives as individuals and as a society." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Music is not simply a distraction or pastime, contends Levitin (Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise; McGill U., Montreal), but a core element of human identity as a species, and an activity that paved the way for more complex behavior such as language, large-scale cooperative undertakings, and the passing of information down the generations. He surveys the evolution of music and brains over tens of thousands of years and across the six inhabited continents. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"Daniel Levitin writes about music with all the exuberance of a die-hard fan, and all the insight of a natural-born scientist. This is a fascinating, entertaining book, and some of its most inventive themes may stay stick in your head forever, something like a well-loved song."

--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"Music seems to have an almost willful, evasive quality, defying simple explanation, so that the more we find out, the more there is to know, leaving its power and mystery intact, however much we may dig and delve. Daniel's book is an eloquent and poetic exploration of this paradox. There may be no simple answer or end in sight, but the ride is nonetheless a thrilling one, especially in the company of a writer who is an accomplished musician, a poet, a hard-nosed scientist, and someone who can still look upon the universe with a sense of wonder."

--Sting

"To try to cover the meaning of music throughout the history of mankind to how we still use it everyday is extraordinarily ambitious. Combining musical expertise, psychology, anthropology and evolutionary science, Daniel Levitin's Six Songs has accomplished this astonishing task."

--Jon Appleton, Composer and Professor of Music, Dartmouth College and Stanford University

"I was skeptical when I began reading. The stated goal seemed outlandish. But by the time I was about one-third the way into The World in Six Songs, I realized just how powerful it is. It really is a tour de force. It is exquisitely written, and brings together a vast array of knowledge, tying things together in creative ways, while always remaining accessible. This promises to be not only another widely read hit, but also an important document for the field of music cognition."

--Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Professor of Psychology, Tufts University

"This wonderful, lucid book takes on one of the great eternal questions: Why is there music? What does music do for humanityfor individual development and for a culture--that in turn accounts for its existence in every known society? Daniel Levitin is not only the preeminent expert in answering such questions, but one of those unique writers about science who understands his field so profoundly that he can make the complex straightforward. This is an exciting, revelatory book."

--Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent and Ordinary Heroes

The author of the "New York Times" bestseller and "Los Angeles Times" Book Award Finalist "This Is Your Brain on Music" tunes into six evolutionary musical forms that brought about the evolution of human culture.

The author of the New York Times bestseller and Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist This Is Your Brain on Music tunes us in to six evolutionary musical forms that brought about the evolution of human culture.

An unprecedented blend of science and art, Daniel Levitin's debut, This Is Your Brain on Music, was an extraordinary success. Now in what is being called a tour de force by his peers, he showcases his audacious theory of "six songs," illuminating how the brain evolved to play and listen to music in six fundamental formsfor friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love.

Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitin's sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell and David Byrne, along with classical musicians, poets, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists.

These six songs enlighten human nature in a way you will never forget.

Daniel J. Levitin runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University. Before becoming a research scientist, he was a record producer and professional musician. As a producer, he has a number of gold records to his credit, and has worked on albums by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Midnight Oil, and kd lang. He has played professionally with Mel Torme, Blue Oyster Cult, and David Byrne, and has published extensively in scientific journals such as Science and Neuron and audio trade journals such as Grammy, Billboard, and Audio.