Daniel J. Levitin is hardly your typical neuroscientist and writer.
When did those findings cross your desk?The evidence came in at first, in trickles.
The people who heard music fared better.
Joni Mitchell performs onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.Kevin Winter/Getty Images
They recovered more quickly.
Their blood pressure was lower.
They reported lower stress and tension.
And I think part of it is that people want to know: Is classical better for you?
Does it make you smarter?
Is it better for your brain than heavy metal?
And no, absolutely not.
So playing Mozart for babies is a myth?Yes, its a myth.
Classical music is great, but musical taste is very personal, and its very subjective.
Take two Joni Mitchell songs and call me in the morning, and well see how youre feeling.
But they certainly fill in a lot of color.
Kim Campbell [Campbells wife] reached out to me and I saw Glens brain scans.
What it meant for Glen was that he could basically do it guitar playing and singing in his sleep.
Hed forget what city he was in.
So the insight with Glen Campbell wasnt anything that a neuroscientist couldnt have predicted.
They dont relate to other people the way you would expect.
But they dont understand emotion in the real world.
If you think about it, to become a great musician requires a certain amount of obsessiveness and compulsiveness.
You have to practice hours and hours and hours.
If youre writing songs, you have to keep track of where they are.
You have to be pretty highly organized not to lose track of them.
You have to label the tapes and know where to find them.
That level of detail is very close to what scientists do.
And scientists are, famously, many of us, on the spectrum.
With stuttering and tics theres some internal regulator not doing its job.
Once youve learned those, the brain takes over and establishes that order almost flawlessly.
The music has this internal momentum that propels you forward, and so it acts as a stabilizing force.
As you observed, Joni herself is an example of that.Ive been friends with her since 1996.
I was writing forGrammymagazine and interviewed Joni and we hit it off.
Around 2001 shed given me her number and asked to stay in touch.
I thought, Oh, my God, she could be playing this at the Hollywood Bowl.
In 2015, she had an aneurysm burst and went to the hospital.
It was a brain bleed.
She came home and couldnt speak or move, and she had round-the-clock care.
And I said, Well, thats agoodsign.
Maybe you should play her some music.
They started playing songs shed selected for herArtists Choicecompilation.
I said, Play her that record.
What the music did for her was what it did for Bobby McFerrin [who is battling Parkinsons].
It served as a reminder of something they deeply loved, and it served as a motivator.
When its in the prefrontal cortex, it helps you to pay attention and focus.
Because nobody predicted this.
Did it help you focus or not?
And I listened and heard [hums the Rick James Super Freak riff].
And I thought, The public is not gullible enough for this afifthtime!
