A few years ago I wrote a short blog series (Part I & Part II) that summarized and reviewed Dan Levitin’s excellent book The World in Six Songs (2009 Penguin Press). Levitin made the compelling case that music served a key role in mankind’s evolution from caves to condominiums.
Human beings, at a societal level, have specific social, psychological and logistical needs that can only be met by communicating with one another through song. It sounds touchy-feely, but Levitin makes his argument through an empirical, academic lens that cites peer-recognized studies conducted in the fields of neuroscience, anthropology and psychiatry. Good stuff.
Levitin goes one step further and even breaks down the music that helped us evolve into six types of songs that really resonate with us: love songs, religious songs, knowledge songs, friendship songs, joy songs, comfort songs.
So after writing about the music business for many years now and living in what is pretty much a fully digital world that markets to me constantly, I would posit to Mr. Levitin that a seventh type of song needs to be added to his list:
Manipulation Songs
“Want to Sail into the Sun” by Gentlemen Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC2S05zQeSA
“The Secret Sun” by Jesse Harris
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Mike Bielenberg is a professional musician and co-founder of http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 22,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of musicians mbielenberg@musicrevolution.com.
