"Bringing together leading researchers from a variety of academic and applied backgrounds, this book examines how music can be used to communicate, as well as the biological, cognitive, social, and cultural processes which underlie such communication."--BOOK JACKET.

Since the beginning of human civilization, music has been used as a device to control social behavior, where it has operated as much to promote solidarity within groups as hostility between competing groups. Music is an emotive manipulator that influences attitude, motivation and behavior at many levels and in many contexts. This volume is the first to address the social ramifications of music’s behaviorally manipulative effects, its morally questionable uses and control mechanisms, and its economic and artistic regulation through commercialization, thus highlighting not only music’s diverse uses at the social level but also the ever-fragile relationship between aesthetics and morality.

An international team of contributors present cross-disciplinary perspectives on food preferences and tastes, showing the common themes of these fundamentals of human existence. A comprehensive introduction outlines the themes and the links between them.

Familiarity underpins our engagement with music. In Music and Familiarity, King and Prior bring together 13 essays that highlight theoretical and empirical considerations about familiarity from three perspectives: listening, musicology, and performance. This book explores the ways in which familiarity impacts our behaviour and responses to music; influences our appreciation and perceptions of music; and also shows how familiarity affects musicians’ performance practices.