John Powell > Quotes

“A surprisingly large majority of people are quite happy to be fed a steady diet of music chosen by others, but there is a small minority who really don’t like it. These naysayers are concentrated in one social group—males over the age of forty, or, to use their more technical appellation, grumpy middle-aged men. The psychologist’s best guess as to why we grumpy middle-aged men don’t like background music is that we are used to having control over things around us.17 We don’t like it when we can’t choose, so we get tetchy and disagreeable, and we don’t like shoe shops anyway, so the irritating music gives us a good excuse to stalk off to the nearest pub.”
― John Powell, Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds

“Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), in which patients are encouraged to experience (and talk about) visual images while music is playing. This kind of guided musical visualization can be very effective at reducing stress levels and alleviating depression.”
― John Powell, Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds

“The trouble with ancient history is that, as far as I can tell, the vast majority of it took place a hell of a long time ago. This”
― John Powell, How Music Works

“Casablanca. The composer, Max Steiner, incorporates the French and German national anthems into the score, and, like most national anthems, both of these tunes were originally written in a major key. But in order to reinforce our negative view of the Nazis, Steiner transposed the German national anthem into a minor key and provided a discordant accompaniment, giving the tune a menacing, oppressive feel.16”
― John Powell, Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds

“But why should a flute make a sound which is smoother and less complex than that of a violin or oboe? To answer this question we have to think about musical instruments as machines which produce notes. All these machines are designed to produce repeating ripple patterns of pressure in the air and they all do this in different ways. For example, playing a flute involves a straightforward method of setting up vibrations in a column of air. There are no moving parts inside a flute, just this simple vibrating body of air. Playing a violin, on the other hand, involves a rather complicated”
― John Powell, How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond

“It’s a shameful indictment of the shabby way we live nowadays, but we have to face the fact that most of you won’t have an ancient Egyptian six-string harp lying around. On”
― John Powell, How Music Works

“sounds. Unexpected changes in pitch, timbre, loudness, and even the direction the sound is coming from surprise us to some extent. And the fact that we are equally surprised by increases or reductions in loudness (or even sudden silences) shows that it’s the change in pattern which is important. A pattern of sounds makes you expect a continuation of that pattern, and if your expectations are violated, your brain starts paying attention. Obviously, small deviations generate minor responses and big pattern changes are more startling.”
― John Powell, Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica—The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds