My brain is hooked on music

I really learned a lot listening to "This is Your Brain on Music".  It was not the most entertaining thing I have ever heard, but it was definitely interesting!  I play the piano and guitar so I love music, but I learned a lot listening to this tape.  

I loved the part that talked about how the brain responds to music in a very real way.  When we hear music our brain is literally hearing it and responding in real time, and in a sense makes the music in our brain.  I looked up information on this and I found a really cool youtube video that has a man hooked up to a computer and then the computer is hooked up to a piano.  The man hooked up to the computer was told to think about a beethoven song in his head and the computer read the brainwaves that resulted from it, then it is able to separate those brainwaves and send them to the piano, and the piano played it!!!  I was amazed by this! Then the man was told to think of a Satie song, and the music on the piano switched to a song by Satie and played in the same style as Satie.  How amazing is that!  I don't know how to post the video on here, which is sad cause its amazing! But if you want to check it out, here is the link,

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx__8XmMiv0

It is amazing to me that our brains are that involved with music.  What is it about music that allows our brain to react that way? Why does it have that special connection with music but not with other things.  I think one reason why might be because we literally internalize music.  It is like food, the sound waves actually enter our body.  Whereas paintings and sculptures are just observed on the outside.   I know that I am most affected by music. More than anything else.  A song can bring me to tears, or can make me so happy.  And there is no better feeling than to hear a song you love for the first time, or to create music.  I am not good at writing my own songs, but I enjoy trying! 

 Music is also something that brings cultures together and people together.  I lived in Hawaii for a year and one of my favorite things to do was to go to the beach and just play the guitar with some friends.  And my most memorable night in Hawaii was when I was walking home from the beach with some friends one night and we saw a group of big polynesian men just sitting in a group playing the ukulele and singing some hawaiian songs.  they voices were just beautiful that night I truly felt privileged to have been able to just sit and listen to them.