Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds

British physicist and musician Powell continues his popular examination of music begun in How Music Works. Written in a breezy and engaging style, this book discusses the emotional power of music and presents current thinking on why music matters. Most of the author's conclusions are validated by research quoted within the text and fully cited in the notes. He examines a smorgasbord of issues: basic elements of emotion (fast, slow, happy, sad), repetition and surprise, music as therapy, as booster of intelligence, film music, tuning (Western music is slightly out of tune by design), and talent (shown mostly to be the result of diligence, not giftedness). The section "Fiddly Details" explains traditional concepts such as timbre, scales, and harmony. Many accounts have addressed the emotional influence of music: Anthony Storr's Music and the Mind; Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia; and textbooks such as the Handbook of Music and Emotion. The virtue of Powell's work is its research-based, accessible style.