booksreddit.com:This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

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ELI5: Music preference. Why do we prefer certain sounds over others and how do they get that way?
Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, …

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ELI5: Music preference. Why do we prefer certain sounds over others and how do they get that way?(r/explainlikeimfive)

Source: This is your brain on music

Music draws out memory, emotion, and engages our mind for predicting rhythm and patterns. These three things explain a few of our preferences.

Ex. I like complex electronica songs because they engage my mind, especially when they do a drop when I’m expecting a pattern to continue. However, I find I can ‘solve’ simple beats much too easily and get bored.

Also, combining sounds of different timbres can yield a unique one, such as guitars+drums->rock and roll, and this will yield preferences, similar to how a chef can combine different flavours to make a dish.

Finally, humans are also intrinsically sensitive to some scales and patterns. For example, we love 4/4 time and music translates across languages. There are a few TED talks about this.

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Additional Information

Subreddits

edmproduction,askscience,Music,musictheory,IAmA,explainlikeimfive,suggestmeabook,technology,mathrock

Number Of Links

35

Sum Of Upvotes

387

Amazon Price

$19.8

Book Binding

Paperback

Type Code

ABIS_BOOK

Book Author

Daniel J. Levitin

Book Edition

1 Reprint

Book Publisher

Plume/Penguin

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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

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ELI5: Music preference. Why do we prefer certain sounds over others and how do they get that way?

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