Daniel Levitin
2749117
225346974
2008-07-13T05:38:25Z
63.145.202.34
{{Infobox musical artist
|Name = Daniel Levitin
|Img = Levitin.jpg
|Img_size =
|Background = solo_singer
|Birth_name = Daniel Joseph Levitin
|Alias =
|Born = {{Birth date and age|1957|12|27|mf=y}}
|Died =
|Origin = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], [[United States|U.S.]]
|Instrument = [[Tenor Saxophone]], [[Guitar]], [[Bass guitar|Bass]], [[Vocals]]
|Genre = [[Rock (music)|Rock]]<br/>[[New Wave music|New Wave]]<br/>[[punk rock|Punk]]<br/>[[Jazz]]<br/>[[Folk rock]]<br/>[[Country]]
|Occupation = [[music producer|Producer]], Cognitive Neuroscientist, Writer
|Years_active = 1980 to Present
|Label = [[415 Records]]<br/>[[Columbia Records]]<br/>[[Sony Music]]<br/>[[Warner Bros. Records]]<br/>Infrasonic Records<br/>[[TwinTone Records]]
|Associated_acts = [[Blue Öyster Cult]]<br/>[[The Afflicted]]<br/>[[Santana (band)|Santana]]<br/>[[The Grateful Dead]]<br/>[[Chris Isaak]]<br/>[[Steely Dan]]<br/>[[Joe Satriani]]<br/>The Mortals<br/>The Alsea River Band<br/>[[Jonathan Richman]] and [[The Modern Lovers]]
|URL = http://www.daniel.levitin.com/
|Current_members =
|Past_members =
}}
Professor '''Daniel J. Levitin''', (born December 27, 1957, San Francisco) is an American [[cognitive psychology|cognitive psychologist]], [[neuroscience|neuroscientist]], [[record producer]], [[music]]ian, and [[writer]].<ref>{{cite journal | year=2000 | month=January | title=Executive Turntable | journal=Billboard }}</ref> He is currently a Professor at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], [[Canada]]. Within cognitive psychology, he has published articles on [[absolute pitch]] and [[music cognition]] and perception.<ref>{{cite book | author=Parncutt, R. and Levitin, D.J. | year=2001 | title=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians | chapter=Absolute Pitch | editor=S. Sadie (Ed.) | pages=37-39 | publisher=St. Martins Press | location=New York}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author=Levitin, D. J. and Rogers. S.E. | year=2005 | month=December | title=Absolute pitch: Perception, coding, and controversies | journal=Trends in Cognitive Sciences | volume=9 | pages=26–33 | doi=10.1016/j.tics.2004.11.007}}</ref> He has worked as a [[Record producer|producer]] and [[sound designer]] on albums by [[Blue Öyster Cult]], [[Chris Isaak]], and [[Joe Satriani]]<ref>{{cite journal | author=Evan Serpick | year=2007 |date=March 18, 2007 | title=Music Under the Microscope| journal=Rolling Stone}}</ref>; as a consultant to [[Steely Dan]] and [[Stevie Wonder]] <ref>{{cite journal | author=James Sullivan | year=2006 |date=August 20, 2006 | title=He's Rocking the World of Neuroscience| journal=Boston Globe}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author=Ann McIlroy | year=2001 |date=March 12, 2001 | title=Dr. Rock 'n' Roll| journal=Globe and Mail}}</ref>; and as a recording engineer for [[Santana (band)|Santana]] and [[The Grateful Dead]]<ref>{{cite journal | author=Susan Dominus | year=2007 |date=March 18, 2007 | title=Rockin' Boffin| journal=London Daily Telegraph, Seven Magazine}}</ref>. Records and CDs to which he has contributed have sold in excess of 30 million copies.<ref>{{cite journal | year=2002 | date =November/December | title=La musique pour maître à penser. | journal=Découvrir}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author=Ann McIlroy | year=2001 |date=March 12, 2001 | title=Dr. Rock 'n' Roll| journal=Globe and Mail}}</ref> He is the author of the best-selling book ''This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession'', (Dutton/Penguin, 2006; Atlantic [UK] 2007).<ref>{{cite journal | year=2006 | date=June 5, 2006 | title=Oliver Sacks meets Jerry Garcia in 'This Is Your Brain on Music' by rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel Levitin' | journal=Publishers Weekly }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | year=2006 |date=September 21 | title=Books: Bestsellers: Top selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of September 21 | journal=MacLeans}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | year=2006 | date=November 5 | title=CHARTS Bestsellers (week ending Nov 05, 2006) | journal=The Book Standard}}</ref> From September, 2006 to April 2007 he served as a weekly [[commentator]] on the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] [[CBC Radio One|Radio One]] show [[Freestyle (radio program)|Freestyle]], and he has appeared frequently on [[NPR]].
== Biography and Education ==
Born in San Francisco, California the son of [[Lloyd Levitin]], a businessman and professor, and [[Sonia Levitin]], a novelist, Levitin was raised in [[Daly City]], [[Moraga]] and [[Palos Verdes]], California.<ref>{{cite book | year=2002 | title=Marquis Who's Who in America | chapter=Levitin, Daniel J. | publisher=Marquis Who's Who LLC | location=New Providence, NJ}}</ref> He studied electrical engineering at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], and music (guitar and saxophone performance, plus jazz arranging) at the [[Berklee College of Music]] before dropping out of college to join a succession of bands. He returned to school in his thirties, studying [[cognitive psychology]]/[[cognitive science]] at [[Stanford University]] (he received his B.A. in 1992 with honors and highest university distinction). He attended the [[University of Oregon]] where he received his M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996). He then completed three post-doctoral fellowships, first in [[human-computer interaction]] at [[Paul Allen]]'s Silicon Valley think-tank [[Interval Research]], then in [[neuroimaging]] at the [[Stanford University School of Medicine|Stanford University Medical School]], then in perception at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite book | year=2002 | title=Marquis Who's Who in America | chapter=Levitin, Daniel J. | publisher=Marquis Who's Who LLC | location=New Providence, NJ}}</ref> His scientific mentors were [[Roger Shepard]], Michael Posner, Douglas Hintzman, [[John R. Pierce]] and Stephen Palmer. He has been a visiting professor at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], [[Stanford University]], and [[Dartmouth College]]. Since 2000, Levitin has taught in the Departments of [[Psychology]], [[Music]], [[Computer Science]], [[Education]], the School of the Environment, and the Program in [[Neuroscience|Behavioural Neuroscience]] at [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mcgill.ca | title = McGill University | accessdate = 2007-11-15 |}}</ref> In 2006, he was awarded the Principal's Prize for Excellence in Teaching at McGill.
Levitin has worked on and off as a stand-up comedian and joke writer, performing at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco with [[Robin Williams]] 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 to Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, as well as the nationally syndicated comic strip [[Bizarro]], some of which were included in the 2006 compilation "Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of [[Dan Piraro]]" (Andrews McMeel).
== Music Producing, Consulting, and E-Music Career ==
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 were used by [[Steely Dan]] for mixing their album [[Pretzel Logic]]. Following that, he worked at A Broun Sound in [[San Rafael]], [[California]], building [[loudspeaker|speaker]] cabinets for [[The Grateful Dead]], for whom he later worked as a consulting [[record producer]]. Levitin was one of the [[golden ear]]s used in the first [[Dolby]] AC audio compression tests, a precursor to [[mp3]] audio compression.<ref>{{cite book | year=2002 | title=Marquis Who's Who in America | chapter=Levitin, Daniel J. | publisher=Marquis Who's Who LLC | location=New Providence, NJ}}</ref> From [[1984]]-[[1988]] he worked as Director and then [[Vice President]] of [[A&R]] for [[415 Records]] in [[San Francisco]], becoming [[President]] of the label in [[1989]] before the label was sold to [[Sony Music]].<ref>{{cite web
| title = 415 Records
| work = Wikipedia
| publisher = Wikipedia
| date = 2006-11-25
| url = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/415_Records
| accessdate = 2006-11-25 }}</ref> Notable achievements during that time included producing the [[punk rock|punk]] classic "Here Come The Cops" by [[The Afflicted]] (named among the Top 10 records of 1985 by [[GQ]] magazine); engineering records by [[Jonathan Richman]] and the [[Modern Lovers]], [[Santana (band)|Santana]] and the [[Grateful Dead]]; and producing tracks for [[Blue Öyster Cult]], the soundtrack to [[Repo Man]], and others.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=DANIEL|LEVITIN&sql=11:ztz8b5m4msqj~T4 | title = Allmusic:Artist:Daniel Levitin | accessdate = 2006-09-14 |}}</ref> 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 for having had the chance to, but ''not'' signing [[M.C. Hammer]].
After leaving 415, he formed his own production and business consulting company, with a list of a clients including AT&T, several venture capital firms, and every major record label. As a consultant for [[Warner Bros. Records]] he planned the marketing campaigns for such albums as [[Eric Clapton]]'s ''[[Unplugged (Eric Clapton album)|Unplugged]]'' and [[k.d. lang]]'s ''[[Ingénue (album)|Ingénue]]''. He was a music consultant on feature films such as ''[[Good Will Hunting]]'' and ''[[The Crow: City of Angels]]'', and served as a compilation consultant to [[Stevie Wonder]]'s "Song Review ~ A Greatest Hits Collection," and to "As Time Goes By" and "Interpretations" 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 Canadian Blues album. In 2006 mixed and co-produced tracks for Diane Nalini's "Songs of Sweet Fire" CD. He has performed on saxophone with [[Mel Tormé]] and [[Sting (musician)|Sting]], and on guitar with members of the [[Steve Miller Band]], [[Whitney Houston]]'s band, and [[David Byrne (musician)|David Byrne]].
In [[1998]] he 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]] group. He currently serves on the [http://www.signalpatterns.com/corporate_science_team.html Science team for Signal Patterns], leading the development of its online music preferences survey. He has also consulted for the [[United States Navy]] on underwater sound [[source separation]], for [[Philips Electronics]] and [[AT&T]].
== Writing career ==
Levitin worked as a reporter for the Palos Verdes View Newspaper (circ. 100,000) while still in high school, and served as its temporary editor during the summers of 1975 and 1976, gaining valuable experience at writing non-fiction for a mass audience. After leaving 415 Records in 1989, he began writing commercial articles for music industry magazines Billboard, Grammy, EQ, Mix, Music Connection, and Electronic Musician, and became a contributing writer to Billboard's Reviews section from 1992-1997. "I didn't have any formal writing experience, but I had some very good editors who taught me how to write, how to organize my thoughts. I also started and finished a novel with Editor Arthur Levine who went on to discover J.K. Rowling, and who gave me a lot of good advice. I wanted to study writing formally, and I finally got the chance in 1989 when the Stanford Writer's Workshop professors let me sit in on advanced writing workshops. I gained years' worth of writing lessons in two semesters," he explained.<ref>{{cite book | author=Peacock, S.| year=2003 | title= Contemporary Authors | publisher=Thompson Gale | location=Farmington Hills, MI}}</ref> In 1990 he was appointed Music Editor of the industry magazine "Recording-Engineer-Producer (REP)," a position he held until the magazine was sold in 1993. He performed "shop talk" interviews with [[George Martin]], [[Phil Ramone]], [[Stevie Wonder]], [[George Massenburg]] and others of his colleagues, published for the benefit of working engineers, producers, and musicians.
He edited a textbook for Bradford Books, a division of MIT Press, "Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings," (2002) used as an undergraduate text at several universities <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mitpres.mit.edu | title = MIT Press | accessdate = 2007-11-15 |}}</ref>. He published "This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession" (Dutton/Penguin 2006; reissued in paperback by Plume/Penguin 2007) which spent more than 9 months on the New York Times Bestseller List <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.nytimes.com | title = New York Times | accessdate = 2007-11-15 |}}</ref> and the Globe and Mail Bestseller list. It was nominated for two awards (The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Outstanding Science & Technology Writing and the Quill Award for the Best Debut Author of 2006), named one of the Top 20 books of the year for 2006 by Canada's Globe and Mail, and has been translated into Italian, French, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish and Romanian. "The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature" (Dutton/Penguin 2008) will be released in August, 2008.
== Awards ==
*Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2006), "This Is Your Brain on Music," Best Book on Science and Technology.
*Nominee, [[Quill Awards|Quill Award]], Best Debut Author (2006), "This Is Your Brain on Music."
*Awarded fourteen [[RIAA]] gold and [[platinum record]]s.<ref>{{cite journal | author= Thompson, Clive | title= Music of the Hemispheres | journal= New York Times | date = December 31, 2006 |pages=Section 2 Arts & Leisure, Page 1}}</ref>
*Best Film Soundtrack award, [[Sundance Film Festival]], [[1985]], for ''Architects of Victory''
*Gold Medal, [[Venice Film Festival]], [[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===
*"From Demo Tape to Deal" (1992). Alfred.
*"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
* "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)
===Music Essays===
*Phil Ramone - A Legend Continues to Grow. Mix , 15(7), July 1991, 87-91.
*The REP Interview: George Massenburg. Recording - Engineering - Production, 23(9), September, 1992, 18-22.
*lang time coming: k.d. Scores Top 10. Billboard, October 10, 1992, 14-15.
*Excitement at your feet: George Martin takes on The Who's Tommy. Electronic Musician, 9(11), November, 1993, p. 146.
*Signal Parent: Thomas Stockham on the Birth of Digital Audio. NARAS Journal, 5(1), 1994, 7-24.
*A conversation with Joni Mitchell. Grammy Magazine, 14(2), Spring, 1996, pp. 26-32. Cover story.
*Conversation in the key of life: Stevie Wonder. Grammy Magazine, 14(3), Summer, 1996, 14-25. Cover story.
*Blue Moon Rising: The John Fogerty Interview. Audio Magazine, January, 1998.
===Scientific Articles (Selected)===
*Levitin, D. J. (2006). Music and the Brain. Paste Magazine, August, 2006.
*Langford, D. J., Crager, S. E., Shehzad, Z., Smith, S. B., Sotocinal, S. G., Levenstadt, J. S., Chanda, M. L., Levitin, D. J. and Mogil, J. S. (2006). Social Modulation of Pain as Evidence for Empathy in Mice. Science, 312, (June 30, 2006), 1967- 1970.
*Vines, B.W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M, & Levitin, D. J. (2006). Cross-Modal Interactions in the Perception of Musical Performance. Cognition, 101, 80-113.
*Levitin, D. J. (2005). Musical behavior in a neurogenetic developmental disorder: Evidence from Williams syndrome. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060(27), 325-334.
*Levitin, D. J. (2000). In search of the musical mind. Cerebrum, 2(4), 1 - 24.
*Levitin, D. J., & Cook, P. R. (1996). Absolute memory for musical tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 927-935.
===Discography===
*Diane Nalini, Songs of Sweeet 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. Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection. Motown, 1996. (Consultant on song selection. Liner notes writer.)
*Steely Dan, 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.)
*kd lang, ''Ingénue'', Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)
*Eric Clapton, Unplugged, Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)
*Joe Satriani, Flying in a Blue Dream, Relativity/Combat/Ruthless, 1990 (Engineering (Asst), Sound Design (Contributed Guitar Sounds)).
*Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World, Warner Brothers, 1989. (Engineering (Asst), Sound Design (Contributed Guitar Sounds)).
*Blue Öyster Cult, Imaginos, Columbia/C.B.S. Records, 1988. (Co-Producer).
*Santana, Freedom, Columbia, 1987. (Engineering).
*Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Rockin' and Romance, Twin/Tone (U.S), Sire (U.K.), 1986. (Engineer).
*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)
*Blue Öyster Cult, The Revölution by Night, Columbia Records, 1983, (Co-producer).
==External links==
*[http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/labs/levitin/index.html Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise]
*[http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/levitin.html Daniel J. Levitin's homepage]
*[http://www.myspace.com/daniellevitin Daniel Levitin's personal Myspace page]
*[http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/ McGill Department of Psychology]
*[http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2006/10/podcast-your-brain-on-music-with.html Interview with Levitin regarding This is Your Brain on Music on The Sound of Young America (2006)]
*[http://www.granatino.com/sdresource/18crime.htm Steely Dan article]
*[http://www.YourBrainOnMusic.com This Is Your Brain On Music web page]
*[http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/11/summer_songs/ Interview on Weekend America]
*[http://www.signalpatterns.com/corporate_fuses.html The FUSES Model of Musical Preferences]
==References==
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[[Category:1957 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American neuroscientists]]
[[Category:Cognitive scientists]]
[[Category:American Jews]]
[[Category:American record producers]]
[[Category:American academics]]
[[Category:American music journalists]]
[[Category:American science writers]]
[[Category:Berklee College of Music alumni]]
[[Category:Stanford University alumni]]