Music is believed to be a powerful tool that plays a significant role in one’s life through its ability to evoke powerful moods. Professor Daniel Levitin is among the few writers in the contemporary world who explore the art of music deeply. He authored the book, This Is Your Brain on Music , which focusses on the groundbreaking union of science and art. The author explores a connection that exists within music regarding its performance, composition, the way humans listen to it, and the reasons for enjoying music with our brains. As such, an exploration of Levitin’s concern of how music has changed over a period of time will be of essence.
Levitin (2006) compares music-making in most parts of the world to most human activities like bathing and walking, which are natural activities. However, the cultures in the contemporary world have changed music, and it is no longer compared to the history of natural music like bathing and walking (Levitin, 2006). For instance, today’s songs overflow with emotions compared to the historically made world songs. Thus, Levitin considers the culture today to be undergoing emotional times that tend to remember sensitive components.
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Moreover, the brains of individuals undergo massive changes from childhood until the teen years after which they become fixed. Today's teen is the most receptive to new kind of music, and they quickly learn them compared to the old times when music was regarded as shallow and of less significance by teens. Moreover, today’s culture has numerous means of exploring music compared to the ancient period with regard to recorded music storage mediums (Levitin, 2006). Hence, music has become less obsessive. During historical times, people listened to songs and developed a sense of grasping the songs in their brains and singing naturally, which is unlike today where people depend on technology for the storage of music.
Notably, Levitin asserts that each human being was musically equipped in the past with different people having their ability to develop different perceptions. Moreover, rational thoughts helped people obtain their thinking through the hardwiring of music. Hence, practice is critical for music and acts as a driving force behind the musical expertise of the past. Nonetheless, these cultural experiences have changed due to the less obsessive nature of today’s music emanating from numerous music recording and storage media.
References
Levitin, D.J. (2006). This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession . New York: Penguin Books.
