Daniel J. Levitin starts the chapter with a quote from cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. Pinker said music is a "pleasure-seeking behavior that exploits pleasure channels that evolved to reinforce an adaptive behavior." Pinker goes on to say music is useless and human life would remain the same if music vanished. He believes music does not help humans reach goals such as, reproduction. Daniel J. Levitin disagrees with Pinker and gives evidence to support his argument. He defines the theory of evolution and points out the statement, "survival of the fittest" is an oversimplification of evolution. Organisms must do two things in order to be successful and fit. Fitness is based on one's reproductive success. Thus, an organism must successfully reproduce and pass its genes on to its offspring. The second thing is that the organisms' offsprings must be viable meaning they must survive and reproduce their own offsprings. This leads into Daniel J. Levitin's first piece of evidence. Natural selection will select towards features of organisms that will make the organism more attractive to possible mates because an organism must mate to pass on its genes. Darwin believed music played a role in sexual selection. He said music is used to charm and woo prospective mates. Darwin also believed that music was like a peacock's tail, which is an example of sexual dimorphism, which is used to impress mates. Such features' only purpose is to make the organism more attractive to mates. Geoffrey Miller, a cognitive physiologist , compares Darwin's ideas to modern society. Miller states that musicians show two things that are signs of sexual fitness. The first sign is that musicians show their good physical health. The second sign is that professional musicians have the resources to support another human being. This can also be seen in other examples from modern society. Wealthy people tend to show off their luxurious life to show potential mates that they have more than enough resources and to show their overall sexual fitness. Daniel J. Levitin suggests that creativity has been selected by evolution as an indication of sexual fitness. In a study to see the effect of creativity on sexual selection, women were studied to see the type of men they preferred. The results showed that women preferred men who were creative but poor to men who were rich but had average creativity. Daniel J. Levitin makes two more points to support his idea. He says that if music is nonadaptive, then people who love music would be at an evolutionary disadvantage. The second point he makes is that music would not be practiced today if it had no adaptive value. Humans would not practice music then because it would be a waste of time and energy. Many cognitive scientists believe music preceded speech communication. They think music helped humans' ancestors prepare for speech communication. They think music has also helped humans refine their motor skills, paving the way for the development of muscle control which is required for speech communication. People like Pinker think music is only performed as a spectator activity. According to Levitin, music has only become a spectator activity in the last five hundred years. The evidence Daniel J. Levitin presents shows that music is more than a spectator activity and is useful in human life.
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| Peacock's tails are used to impress potential mates |
This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin explains how music affects the human brain and why music is important. Daniel J. Levitin provides extensive details to support his statements and shows both sides of arguments regarding music and neural theory. He also adds his personal experiences to make the book more than just constant facts being piled on the reader. Daniel J. Levitin also explains music theory and neural theory so that the reader understands the two theories though the reader is not a professional on the topics. The book provides a good understanding of how music affects the human brain and ties all the concepts together well. I would recommend this book to others because of the overall knowledge the book provides to the reader.
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