This Is What It Sounds Like
What the Music You Love Says About You
-
- £9.99
-
- £9.99
Publisher Description
Legendary record producer-turned-brain scientist explains why you fall in love with music.
'Extraordinary insights about music, emotion and the brain...An instant classic' Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music. It's also the story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in L.A. to become Prince's chief engineer for Purple Rain and one of the most successful female record producers of all time.
Now an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience, Dr Susan Rogers takes readers behind the scenes of record-making and leads us to musical self-awareness. She explains that everyone possesses a unique 'listener profile', shows how being musical can mean actively listening, and encourages us to think about the records that define us. Lively and illuminating, this book will refresh your playlists, deepen your connection to artists, and change the way you listen to music.
'Superb... this book can show you how to be a better listener' Times Literary Supplement
'A provocative blend of studio stories and fascinating neuroscience' Alan Light, author of Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain
'Fizzing with energy and insight...a crucial addition to the canon of music must-reads' Kate Hutchinson
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Be it records or romantic partners, we fall in love with the ones who make us feel like our best and truest self," writes music producer and neuroscientist Rogers in this pitch-perfect deep dive into the power of music. Determined to ascertain how and why music resonates so strongly with its listeners, Rogers—the chief engineer for Prince's Purple Rain—breaks down the emotional and scientific importance of lyrics, melody, rhythm, and timbre. In brainy yet breezy prose, she explores how a song's melody can actually be more impactful than its lyrics; how audiences crave to hear lyrics they can relate to; and why making music with others facilitates a sense of belonging: "Communal music making bypasses the need to express your musical self as an individual, letting you fuse your identity with something larger than yourself." Most resonant is Rogers's fascinating foray into the ways the mind and music connect; because "our auditory circuitry has more varied and direct connections to our emotion circuitry than does our visual circuity," she writes, "music activates our mind wandering network—and our personal self—more easily and fully than any other art form." Combining erudite analysis with plenty of soul, this will have music lovers rapt.
