Appreciating music involves much more than recognizing notes. Our appreciation is "intimately related to our ability to learn the underlying structure of the music we like," similar to how we learn grammar rules in language. Knowing these rules gives us the ability to predict what comes next in a piece of music, based on our understanding of musical structure. Composers "imbue music with emotion" by setting us up, much the way magicians do when performing tricks. They know what our expectations are and control when those expectations are met, if at all.

The "thrills, chills, and tears" we experience when listening to a piece of music, says Levitin, are the result of skillful composers manipulating our expectations of what comes next. They accomplish this in a variety of ways, such as adding unusual harmonies to a song, mixing genres, lulling us into a false ending, and unexpectedly ending a song.

Speaking of skillful, it takes quite a bit of skill to explain the functions of the brain to non-scientists. This is where Levitin’s use of analogy is especially helpful. For instance, he contends that we recognize the overall sound of songs the way we recognize a landscape. We take in cues like trees, hills, mountains, and plains that distinguish one region from another; we do the same with musical cues. This resultant "soundscape" enables us to say, "That’s a Beatles song" or "They sound like the Beatles" or "This is early Miles Davis."

This Is Your Brain On Music answers such questions as why certain tunes get stuck in our heads (think commercial jingles) and why the brain takes delight – yes, delight – in synchronizing itself with the pulse of music. This delight holds the key to why we, or rather, our brains, enjoy "organized sound."

Levitin obviously loves music and is equally enamored with science. He hits the right notes as he connects unfamiliar and occasionally arcane theories with familiar pop culture references and common examples to explain music's effect on the brain.