No art form is as widely discussed—or as readily available—as music. With the click of just a few buttons, modern humans can decide what they think of the brand-new Beyoncé just as quickly as they can form opinions on Brahms or the Beatles or Bob Dylan. But things weren't always this way. In this brisk, breakneck history, award-winning musician and broadcaster Andrew Ford dives into the constant evolutions and reinventions that have led to the popularity and accessibility of modern music. Ford explores:

● Why playing history's earliest example of notated music—clay tablets from 1400 BCE Syria—doesn't produce a consistent sound

● How colonization and the slave trade led to one region in West Africa having an unparalleled influence on world music

● How clerical and royal support allowed early composers to invent the symphony

● What leads humans to make music in the first place—and why music plays such a massive role in our culture.

The Shortest History of Music takes us on a lively tour through several thousands of years of music history, tracing our relationship with this essential art and allowing us to freshly appreciate and understand music today.