Levitin explores how the evolution of our brains made music, art, science, and society possible. He uncovers six fundamental ways that songs communicate emotion and ideas--songs of friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge and love--and so have built human nature. Mixing cutting-edge neuroscience, his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business, and illuminating interviews with experts from Sting and David Byrne to conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists, Levitin reveals the prehistoric, elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at weddings, cheer at a concert, or tune out privately with an iPod.

Includes index (337-358).

Taking it from the top, or, "The hills are alive ..." -- Friendship, or, "War (what is it good for)?" -- Joy, or, "Sometimes you feel like a nut" -- Comfort, or, "Before there was Prozac, there was you" -- Knowledge, or, "I need to know" -- Religion, or, "People get ready" -- Love, or, "Bring 'em all in".