Elektron-Users

I picked up a copy of This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession the other day, and am really enjoying it. While the book is heavily scientific and a little dry in places, it has some really insightful (and I think useful) information on people's expectations from music through previous experiences, and how emotive music can exploit these expectations.

Anyone read any similar books? It's nice to get a dash of music theory, mixed with science. Something with music theory pertaining to sociology would be interesting.

mmmmm! sounds really interesting! Def. gonna check it out. Thanks for the book hook up.

Music, The Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain was pretty good. Jourdain delves into the lives of our musical legends (Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Ellington, etc.), and tries to talk about how musicians approached their craft in different ways... how some started young and never reached their full potential, how others kept maturing, what kinds of memories each had...

He also goes well into the theory of how the brain reacts to different musical phrases and such. People have criticized the book for being too Western and too Classical, but for me it was a good read.

I'd highly recommend the ravenspiral guide to electronic music. it's aimeed at electronic music and covers a whole wide range of knowledge. Definitely worth a read, plus it's free.
You can grab it from here : http://www.ravenspiral.com/ravenspiralguide.pdf

I also enjoyed This Is Your Brain on Music a lot, even if it appears between the lines that the guy has a serious problem with pop and electronic music the book is a very nice and deep read.
I was fascinated by the writing skills of the guy, the topic he covers are really scientific but he managed to make the book simple to read, so that even john doe with no idea about neuroscience can get it.
As said, what I disliked is how he seems to find silly every music which has been doing after the 70s, but that's just his opinion it doesn't interfere with the main topic of the music.

After reading this I got myself Unlockin the Groove thanks to Wesen hint, maybe not the book for everyone being strongly focussed on detroit techno.

From a totally different point of view, still interesting:

The Niche Hypothesis: How Animals Taught Us to Dance and Sing By Bernie Krause, Ph.D.

Cool thanks for the suggestions.

sorgenkind wrote:
I also enjoyed This Is Your Brain on Music a lot, even if it appears between the lines that the guy has a serious problem with pop and electronic music the book is a very nice and deep read.
I was fascinated by the writing skills of the guy, the topic he covers are really scientific but he managed to make the book simple to read, so that even john doe with no idea about neuroscience can get it.
As said, what I disliked is how he seems to find silly every music which has been doing after the 70s, but that's just his opinion it doesn't interfere with the main topic of the music.


I don't think I've reached that far in the book yet, up to now it seems to be more of an omission of anything past the 70s.. actually scrap that he uses quite a few 80s tracks as examples. The guy is probably just getting old, he should know more than anyone else how that effects his ability or urges to accept new types of music. But yeah still only halfway into it.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell

Any of the Sound On Sound "Synth Secrets" articles:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

the mysticism of sound by hazrat inayat khan. phenomenal read, well at least for me.