Maria Popova’s article reviews a number of books, all of which explore how music affects our lives. Among her choices are: Oliver Sacks (Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain) who is concerned with the neuropsychology of music; Daniel Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession) who explores the wide range of musical tastes and discusses musical processing as a cognitive function. (Levitin also takes aim at those who dismiss music as an irrelevant pastime.); Aniruddh Patel (Music, Language, and the Brain) who tackles the subject of musical evolution, and New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (Listen to This) who works to explain world culture through its music.
Read the entire article here: 7 Essential Books on Music, Emotion, and the Brain