Daniel Joseph Levitin, FRSC (born December 27, 1957) is an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, writer, musician, and record producer. He is the author of four ''New York Times'' best-selling books, including '' This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'', (Dutton/Penguin 2006; Plume/Penguin 2007) which has sold more than 1 million copies. Levitin is a James McGill Professor Emeritus of

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

, behavioral neuroscience and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada; a Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at The Minerva Schools at KGI; and a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the

Haas School of Business The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as Berkeley Haas, is the business school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It was the first business school at a public universit ...

, University of California at Berkeley. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Grammys, a consultant to the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and ...

, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

, a fellow of the

Psychonomic Society The Psychonomic Society is an international scientific society of over 4,500 scientists in the field of experimental psychology. The mission of the Psychonomic Society is to foster the science of cognition through the advancement and communicat ...

, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC). He has appeared frequently as a guest commentator on NPR and CBC. He has published scientific articles on

absolute pitch Absolute pitch (AP), often called perfect pitch, is a rare ability of a person to identify or re-create a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone. AP may be demonstrated using linguistic labeling ("naming" a note), associating ...

, music cognition, neuroanatomy, and

directional statistics Directional statistics (also circular statistics or spherical statistics) is the subdiscipline of statistics that deals with directions (unit vectors in Euclidean space, R''n''), axes ( lines through the origin in R''n'') or rotations in R''n''. ...

. His five books have all been international bestsellers, and collectively have sold more 3 million copies worldwide: '' This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'' (2006), '' The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature'' (2008), '' The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload'' (2014), '' A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age'' (2016) and ''Successful Aging'' (2020). Levitin also worked as a music consultant, producer and sound designer on albums by Blue Öyster Cult, Chris Isaak, and Joe Satriani among others; produced punk bands including MDC and The Afflicted; and served as a consultant on albums by artists including

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from liv ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, pop, s ...

, and Michael Brook; and as a recording engineer for Santana,

Jonathan Richman Jonathan Michael Richman (born May 16, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970, he founded the Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key acoustic an ...

, O.J. Ekemode and the Nigerian Allstars, and The Grateful Dead. Records and CDs to which he has contributed have sold more than 30 million copies.

Biography and education

Born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, the son of Lloyd Levitin, a businessman and professor, and

Sonia Levitin Sonia Wolff Levitin (born August 18, 1934) is a German-American novelist, artist, producer. Levitin, a Holocaust survivor, has written over forty novels and picture books for young adults and children, as well as several theatrical plays and publ ...

, a novelist. Daniel Levitin was raised in

Daly City Daly City () is the second most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with population of 104,901 according to the 2020 census. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and immediately south of San Francisco (sharing its ...

, Moraga, and Palos Verdes, all in California. He graduated after his junior year at Palos Verdes High School and attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

where he studied applied mathematics; he enrolled at the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...

before dropping out of college to join a succession of bands, work as a record producer, and help found a record label, 415 Records. He returned to school in his thirties, studying

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

/ cognitive science first at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

where he received a BA degree in 1992 (with honors and highest university distinction) and then to the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...

where he received an MSc degree in 1993 and a PhD degree in 1996. He completed post-doctoral fellowships at

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, whic ...

's Silicon Valley think-tank

Interval Research Interval Research Corporation was founded in 1992 by Paul Allen and David Liddle. It was a Palo Alto laboratory and technology incubator focusing on consumer product applications and services with a focus on the Internet. A 1997 version of the com ...

, at the

Stanford University Medical School Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. Th ...

, and at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. His early influences include

Susan Carey Susan E. Carey (born 1942) is an American psychologist who is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. She studies language acquisition, children's development of concepts, conceptual changes over time, and the importance of executive fun ...

, Merrill Garrett, and Molly Potter and his scientific mentors include Roger Shepard,

Karl H. Pribram Karl H. Pribram (; ; February 25, 1919 – January 19, 2015) was a professor at Georgetown University, in the United States, an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and distinguished professor at Radford Univer ...

, Michael Posner, Douglas Hintzman, John R. Pierce, and Stephen Palmer. He has been a visiting professor at the

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

, and Oregon Health Sciences University. As a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in music perception and cognition, he is credited for fundamentally changing the way that scientists think about auditory memory, showing through the Levitin Effect, that long-term memory preserves many of the details of musical experience that previous theorists regarded as lost during the encoding process. He is also known for drawing attention to the role of cerebellum in music listening, including tracking the beat and distinguishing familiar from unfamiliar music. Outside of his academic pursuits Levitin has worked on and off as a stand-up comedian and joke writer, performing at the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

with

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

in 1984, and at comedy clubs in California; he placed second in the National Lampoon stand-up comedy competition regionals in San Francisco in 1989, and has contributed jokes for

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's '' The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 20 ...

and Arsenio Hall, as well as the nationally syndicated comic strip Bizarro. Some comics were included in the 2006 compilation ''Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro'' (Andrews McMeel).

Music

Levitin began playing piano at age 4. He took up clarinet at age 8, and bass clarinet and saxophone at age 12. He played saxophone (tenor and baritone) in high school; at age 17 he performed on baritone with the big band backing up

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for " The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an ...

at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. He began playing guitar at age 20 and has been a member of bands including The Alsea River Band (lead guitar), The Mortals (bass),

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

(bass), The Shingles (lead guitar), Slings & Arrows (bass), JD Buhl (bass and guitar). He also played on recording sessions for Blue Öyster Cult, True West, and the soundtrack to '' Repo Man.'' He continues to perform regularly and has played saxophone with

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-earth ...

, Ben Sidran, and Bobby McFerrin, played guitar with Rosanne Cash, Blue Öyster Cult,

Rodney Crowell Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album '' Diamonds & Dirt''. ...

, Michael Brook, Gary Lucas, Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Peter Case, Peter Himmelman,

Lenny Kaye Lenny Kaye (''né'' Kusikoff; born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group. Early life Kaye was born to Jewish parents in the Washington Heights area of upper M ...

, Jessie Farrell, and

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

; and appeared on vocals with

Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fu ...

and Rosanne Cash. In the fall of 2017 he toured the West Coast with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau. He began writing songs at age 17. His songwriting has been praised by a number of top songwriters including

Diane Warren Diane Eve Warren (born September 7, 1956) is an American songwriter. She has received several awards including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three ''Billboard'' Music Awards and an Honorary Academy Award. Wa ...

, and

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her st ...

, who said, "Dan is really good at what he does, and creates rich images with his words and music." He released his first album of original songs, ''Turnaround'', in January 2020 with a performance with his own band at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, followed by seven shows with Victor Wooten's Bass Extremes band in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Phoenix, and a performance of one of the album's songs
Just A Memory
with

, Victor Wooten and Hardy Hemphill sponsored by

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Music producing and engineering

In the late 1970s, Levitin consulted for M&K Sound as an expert listener assisting in the design of the first commercial satellite and subwoofer loudspeaker systems, an early version of which was used by

for mixing their album '' Pretzel Logic'' (1974). After that he worked at A Broun Sound in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish for " St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's popula ...

, reconing speakers for The Grateful Dead for whom he later worked as a consulting record producer. Levitin was one of the

golden ear A golden ear is a term used in professional audio circles to refer to a person who is thought to possess special talents in hearing. People described as having golden ears are said to be able to discern subtle differences in audio reproduction tha ...

s used in the first Dolby AC audio compression tests, a precursor to MP3 audio compression. From 1984 to 1988, he worked as the director, then vice president of A&R for 415 Records in San Francisco, becoming the president of the label in 1989 before the label was sold to

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

. Notable achievements during that time included producing the punk classic ''Here Come the Cops'' by The Afflicted (named among the Top 10 records of 1985 by '' GQ'' magazine); engineering records by

and the Modern Lovers, Santana, and the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...

; and producing tracks for Blue Öyster Cult, the soundtrack to '' Repo Man'' (1984), and others. Two highlights of his tenure in A&R were discovering the band The Big Race (which later became the well-known soundtrack band Pray for Rain), and he had the opportunity to sign

M.C. Hammer Stanley Kirk Burrell (born March 30, 1962), better known by his stage name MC Hammer (or simply Hammer), is an American rapper, dancer, record producer and entrepreneur. He is known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", " 2 Legit 2 Quit" ...

but passed. After 415 was sold, he formed his own production and business consulting company, with a list of clients including

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

, several

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

firms, and every major record label. As a consultant for Warner Bros. Records he planned the marketing campaigns for such albums as

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...

's '' Unplugged'' (1992) and k.d. lang's '' Ingénue'' (1992). He was a music consultant on feature films such as '' Good Will Hunting'' (1997) and '' The Crow: City of Angels'' (1996), and served as a compilation consultant to

's '' Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection'' (1996), and to '' As Time Goes By'' (2003) and '' Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration'' (1995; updated and released as a DVD in 2003) by The Carpenters. Levitin returned to the studio in 2002, producing three albums for Quebec blues musician Dale Boyle: ''String Slinger Blues'' (2002), ''A Dog Day for the Purists'' (2004), and ''In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town'' (2005), the latter two of which won the annual Lys Blues Award for best Blues album. He helped

with the production of her three most recent albums, '' Shine'', ''Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced'', and ''Starbucks' Artist's Choice: Joni Mitchell''. In 1998, Levitin helped to found MoodLogic.com (and its sister companies, Emotioneering.com and jaboom.com), the first Internet music recommendation company, sold in 2006 to

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

group. He has also consulted for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

on underwater sound source separation, for Philips Electronics, and

. He was an occasional script consultant to The Mentalist from 2007 to 2009.

Writing career

Levitin began writing articles in 1988 for music industry magazines ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'', ''Grammy'', ''EQ'', ''Mix'', ''Music Connection'', and ''Electronic Musician'', and was named contributing writer to ''Billboard''s Reviews section from 1992 to 1997. He has contributed to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', and ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. Levitin is the author of '' This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'', (Dutton/Penguin 2006; Plume/Penguin 2007) which spent more than 12 months on the ''New York Times'' and the ''Globe'' and ''Mail'' bestseller lists. In that book, he shares observations related to all sorts of music listeners, telling for instance that, today, teenagers listen to more music in one month than their peers living during the 1700s during their entire existence. The book was nominated for two awards ( ''The Los Angeles Times'' Book Prize for Outstanding Science & Technology Writing and the

Quill Award The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-2007. It was a " consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was supp ...

for the Best Debut Author of 2006), named one of the top books of the year by Canada's ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' and by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', and has been translated into 20 languages. '' The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature'' (Dutton/Penguin 2008) debuted on the Canadian and the ''New York Times'' bestseller lists, and was named by the ''

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Puli ...

'' and by ''

Seed Magazine ''Seed'' (subtitled ''Science Is Culture''; originally ''Beneath the Surface'') is a defunct online science magazine published by Seed Media Group. The magazine looked at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and ...

'' as one of the best books of 2008. It was also nominated for the World Technology Awards. '' The Organized Mind'' was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in 2014, debuting at #2 on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller List and reaching #1 on the Canadian best-seller lists. ''

A Field Guide to Lies ''A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age'' is a bestselling book written by Daniel J. Levitin and originally published in 2016 by Dutton (Penguin Random House). It was published in 2017 in paperback with a revised introd ...

'' was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in 2016, and released in paperback in March 2017 under the revised title ''Weaponized Lies''. It appeared on numerous best-seller lists in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and is the most acclaimed of Levitin's four books, receiving the National Business Book Award, the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the Axiom Business Book Award, and was a finalist for the Donner Prize. ''Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives'' was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in January 2020 and debuted at #10 on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list in its first week of release, and at #2 on the Canadian bestseller list, and stayed on the Canadian bestseller lists for more than six months. It was named an Apple Books book-of-the-month and Next Big Idea Club selection. It was published by Penguin Life in the U.K. as ''The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well''; it debuted at #5 on the ''Sunday Times'' Bestseller List. It was named by the Sunday Times as one of the best books of 2020

In popular culture

In '' The Listener'' TV series, actor

Colm Feore Colm Joseph Feore (; born August 22, 1958) is a Canadian actor. A 15-year veteran of the Stratford Festival, he is known for his Gemini-winning turn as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the CBC miniseries '' Trudeau'' (2002), his portrayal of Gl ...

says his performance of the character Ray is based on Daniel Levitin. Levitin consulted on the legal strategy used by

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

and

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ...

to defend copyright infringement claim against his song Stairway To Heaven.

Media appearances

From September 2006 to April 2007 Levitin served as a weekly commentator on the CBC Radio One show ''

Freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Lab ...

''. Two documentary films were based on ''

This Is Your Brain on Music ''This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'' is a popular science book written by the McGill University neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, and first published by Dutton Penguin in the U.S. and Canada in 2006, and updated and ...

'': ''The Music Instinct'' (2009, PBS), which he co-hosted with Bobby McFerrin, and ''The Musical Brain'' (2009, CTV/National Geographic Television) which he co-hosted with

. Levitin appeared in '' Artifact'', a 2012 documentary directed by

Jared Leto Jared Joseph Leto ( ; born December 26, 1971) is an American actor and musician. Known for his method acting in a variety of roles, he has received numerous accolades over a career spanning three decades, including an Academy Award and a Gold ...

. His television and film appearances have reached more than 50 million viewers worldwide. Levitin had a cameo appearance in ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'' at the invitation of the producers, in Season 8, Episode 5, "The Focus Attenuation". He appeared in the opening scene, sitting at a table in the Caltech cafeteria over Sheldon's right shoulder. In January 2015 he was a guest on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

's '' Start the Week'' program alongside cognitive scientist

Margaret Boden Margaret Ann Boden (born 26 November 1936) is a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and c ...

. In 2019–2020 he was a script consultant and on-air guest for Season 8 of

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

's ''

Brain Games ''Brain Games'' is a collection of memory video games programmed by Larry Kaplan and released by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 2600 in 1978. It is a group of memory games, in which the player is faced with outwitting the computer in sound and pictur ...

''. In 2020, he appeared in Stewart Copeland's ''Adventures in Music'' series on BBC 4, discussing the evolutionary basis of music and the neuroscience of music.

Awards

*Finalist, Donner Prize (2017),

. *Winner,

National Business Book Award The National Business Book Award is an award presented to Canadian business authors. The award, presented every year since 1985, is sponsored by Bennett Jones, '' The Globe and Mail'', and The Walrus, DeGroote, and supported by CPA Canada and wi ...

(2017), A Field Guide to Lies. *Silver Medal, Axiom Business Book Awards, Ethics category (2017),

. *Winner, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction (2016),

. *Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2006), ''

'', Best Book on Science and Technology. *Cine Special Jury Prize for Arts & Culture, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2010, Washington, D.C. * Banff World Television Festival, Rockie Award Nominee, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2010. *First place, Pariscience Film Festival, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2009. *Winner,

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United States ...

, Best Sound in an Information/Documentary Program or Series, The Musical Brain (Daniel Levitin, host and scientific consultant), 2009. * Hugo Television Award, Science/Nature Documentary, 45th Chicago International Film Festival, The Musical Brain (Daniel Levitin, host and scientific consultant), 2009. *European Acoustics Association (EAA) Award for Outstanding Scientific Results Published in Acta Acustica United With Acustica (with co-recipients C. Guastavino, J-D Pollack, D. Dubois and B. Katz), 2008. *Nominee,

, Best Debut Author (2006), ''

''. *Awarded sixteen

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

gold and

platinum record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

s. **

, Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection **

, Unplugged **

Can't Buy A Thrill ''Can't Buy a Thrill'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released in November 1972 by ABC Records. The album was written by band members Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, recorded in August 1972 at the Village Recorder in ...

**Steely Dan,

Countdown to Ecstasy ''Countdown to Ecstasy'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released in July 1973 by ABC Records. It was recorded at Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado, and at The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, Californi ...

**Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic **Steely Dan,

Katy Lied ''Katy Lied'' is the fourth studio album by American rock band Steely Dan, released in 1975 by ABC Records. It was certified gold and peaked at No. 13 on the US charts. The single "Black Friday" charted at No. 37. The album was the first after t ...

**Steely Dan, The Royal Scam **Steely Dan, Aja **Steely Dan, Gaucho **Steely Dan, Two Against Nature **Steely Dan, Gold (Steely Dan album), expanded edition **Steely Dan, A Decade of Steely Dan ** K.d. lang, Ingenue **

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 ...

, Diesel and Dust ** Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World ** The Crow: City of Angels (soundtrack) *Best Film Soundtrack award,

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

, 1985, for ''Architects of Victory'' *Gold Medal,

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

, 1985, Film Soundtrack Production, for ''Architects of Victory'' *Lys Award, Best Blues Album, 2005, Dale Boyle: In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town *Lys Award, Best Blues Album 2004, Dale Boyle and the Barburners: A Dog Day for Purists *"Top 100 Papers in Cognitive Science" by the Millennium Project for "Absolute Memory for Musical Pitch," ''Perception and Psychophysics'', 1994.

Selected publications

Books

*''The Billboard Encyclopedia of Record Producers'' (1999). New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, E. Olsen, C. Wolff, P. Verna, Editors; D. J. Levitin, associate editor. * ''Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings'' (2002), Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press * ''Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings, Second Edition'' (2010), Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Publishing * '' This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'', (2006), New York: Dutton/Penguin. (released in the U.K. and Commonwealth territories by Atlantic, 2007). (appeared on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller List both in hardcover and paperback) * '' The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature'' (2008), New York: Dutton/Penguin and Toronto: Viking/Penguin. (''New York Times'' bestseller) * '' The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload'' (2014), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House and Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House and London: Viking/Penguin Random House. * '' A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age'' (2016), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House; Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House; London: Viking/Penguin Random House * '' Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives'' (2020), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House; Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House; London: Penguin Life.

Scientific articles (selected)

* * * * *

Discography

*J.D. Buhl, ''Remind Me''. Driving Records/CD Baby, 2015. (Producer and Engineer). *Diane Nalini, ''Songs of Sweet Fire''. 2006. (Mixing Engineer, Production Consultant). *Dale Boyle, ''In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town''. 2005. (Production Consultant) *Dale Boyle and the Barburners, ''A Dog Day for the Purists''. 2004. (Producer). *Dale Boyle and the Barburners, ''String Slinger Blues''. 2002. (Producer). *The Carpenters. ''As Time Goes By''. A&M Records/Universal, 2000. (Consultant on song selection, liner notes writer.) *Various Artists. Original motion picture soundtrack, ''Good Will Hunting''. Hollywood/Miramax Records, 1998. (A&R Consultant. ) *

Stevie Wonder discography American musician Stevie Wonder has released 23 studio albums, three soundtrack albums, four live albums, 11 compilations, one box set, and 91 singles. His first album, '' The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie'', was released in 1962 when he was 12 ye ...

Stevie Wonder. ''Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection''. Motown, 1996. (Consultant on song selection. Liner notes writer.) *

, ''Gold'', ''Decade'', ''Gaucho'', ''Aja'', ''The Royal Scam'', ''Katy Lied'', ''Pretzel Logic'', ''Countdown to Ecstasy'', ''Can't Buy A Thrill'', MCA, 1992. (Consultant on CD Remastering.) ource?*kd lang, ''Ingénue'', Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.) *

, ''Unplugged'', Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.) *Chris Isaak, ''Heart Shaped World'', Warner Brothers, 1989. (Engineering (Asst), Sound Design (Soundscape)). *Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, ''Rockin' and Romance'', Twin/Tone (U.S), Sire (U.K.), 1986. (Engineer). *The Furies, ''Fun Around The World'', Infrasonic, 1986 *Rhythm Riot, ''Rhythm Riot'', EP, Infrasonic, 1987*True West, ''Drifters'', Passport/JEM Records, 1985. (Co-Producer). *The Big Race, "Happy Animals," from the Soundtrack of the Paramount Film ''Repo Man'', 1985. (Producer, Engineer) * The Afflicted, ''Good News About Mental Health'', Infrasonic, 1984. (Producer) *''International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation'', R Radical Records, 1984 (Producer of tracks by The Afflicted and MDC), reissued 1997 New Red Archives/Lumberjack Mordam Music Group

Filmography

References

External links

*
Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and ExpertiseDaniel Levitin discusses ''This is Your Brain on Music''
– Interview on the 7th Avenue Project radio show

* ttp://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3414800199/levitin-daniel-j-1957.html Levitin, Daniel J. 1957– in: ''

Contemporary Authors ''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work which has been published by Gale since 1962. It provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers. ''Contemporary Authors'' does not have selective inclusion c ...

'', 2005, at encyclopedia.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levitin, Daniel 1957 births Living people Canadian cognitive neuroscientists Record producers from California American music journalists American music psychologists American science writers Berklee College of Music alumni Stanford University alumni Stanford University School of Medicine alumni University of Oregon alumni Stanford University faculty Dartmouth College faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Stanford University Department of Psychology faculty Stanford University School of Engineering faculty McGill University faculty Writers from San Francisco Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada People from San Francisco Journalists from California People from Palos Verdes, California People from Daly City, California People from Moraga, California