This is What It Sounds Like distils a lifetime's expertise as a producer and an award-winning professor with a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, to present a new theory of listening for everyday music fans. Each person has a unique identity as a listener, she explains, determined by seven influential dimensions of musical listening: authenticity, realism, novelty, melody, lyrics, rhythm and timbre. Largely informative and rather interesting, This Is What It Sounds Like dishes out a good bit of science and research into why music — of all kinds — is so integral to the human experience. While there is a larger component and focus on the science behind why the brain and body responds the way it does to various components of music than what I anticipated (or wanted), I thought the method of teaching the reader about the fundamental correlations made the information surprisingly accessible. Like a therapist that untangled my musical relationships, Susan Rogers helped me understand my past and gave me a map to work out where I want to go next. I understood why I love the records I do and now I've got a map for my next treasure hunt Mobeen Azhar, award-winning journalist and filmmaker That said, it’s a fascinating read anyway, and highly informative particularly if you’re interested in psychoacoustics. Nonetheless, it was an enlightening way along — and I really enjoyed the eclectic playlist included.

Susan Rogers found her superpower in the music world not as a musician, but as a master listener. Rogers’ book is a gift to music listeners of all kinds—because in listening we hear not only the music, we hear the sonic signature of our own soul. The mysterious gravitational tractor beam of musical obsession that has directed my entire life has now been explained so eloquently by Susan Rogers. She has guided me on a righteous riff to the engine room of my own unique musical journey Craig Northey, musician and film and TV composerMusical anhedonia affects 5-10% of the population. Individuals with this condition generate a normal amount of dopamine activity in response to art, food, money, and other types of stimuli- just not to music." This statistic was startling to me as I cannot imagine a day without listening to music. This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets of why your favorite songs move you. But it’s also a story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in Los Angeles to became Prince’s chief engineer for Purple Rain, and then create other No. 1 hits (including Barenaked Ladies' "One Week") as one of the most successful female record producers of all time. If you've ever wondered why you love a song and what that says about you this book will help you understand why. Susan is one of the smartest people in the world of music and this book will help you hear music more deeply and more thoughtfully. You can tell why Prince loved working with her Touré, author of I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon This leads to a natural question, the question that drives this book: What is it about you that makes you feel the thrill of resonance when you hear one record but the chill of apathy when you hear another? [...] More simply, what makes a person fall in love with a record?"

Rogers’ neuro-scientific nous is boosted by her gift for communication; her insights into brain networks and memory associations make sense even to the most uninformed layman. Equally, her genuine love for her subject gives credence to more subjective conclusions about poetical and polemical lyrics, and their passionate call to arms, or Proust-like conjuring of nostalgic tidal waves. The neuroscience is tangential, at best. There are very few scientific explanations on how the brain works when listening to music, and those mostly feel like phrases from a learning book thrown in here, to sound more pompous. Now an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience, 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. The book sets out to answer exactly that question. And while I learned a lot about subjective taste and some terrific stuff on the tech side of music, I’m not sure the book ever got around to satisfactorily answering its own central query. This Is What It Sounds Like is a revelation... extraordinary insights about music, emotion, and the brain... An instant classic, [it] should be read by anyone who has ever been moved by a piece of music-in other words, everyone Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized MindBy reading this book you can find interesting facts about the author’s life, her music preferences, some music theory, all peppered with some cognitive neuroscience to make it all sound smart. What you will not learn from this book is What the Music You Love Says About You, despite what the titles suggests. If you start this book as I did, thinking that you might learn what the music you listen to says about your psychology, then you will be disappointed. At most, you will find out if you have a music related impairment, such as the inability to follow rhythm or visualise melody. I am not saying the book is not interesting, it is. However, I find the title deceiving. A provocative blend of studio stories and fascinating neuroscience' Alan Light, author of Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain At first the book seemed to be written from the perspective of a listener, but not long before changing to the author's perspective. I must say, I was curious to learn about my listener's profile, but all I got was the author's. Why do we like the music we like? With a provocative blend of studio stories and fascinating neuroscience, celebrated producer and engineer Susan Rogers sets out to answer this eternal mystery - and, along the way, just might turn you into a better listener Alan Light, music journalist and author of Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain

Susan is one of the smartest people in the world of music and this book will help you hear music more deeply and more thoughtfully. You can tell why Prince loved working with her. Despite being unable to play an instrument, Susan Rogers became an extraordinarily successful record producer - and certainly one of the most successful women record producers in history - because of her ability to listen. (She was an engineer on Prince's "When Doves Cry", which inspired the title of the book.) A groundbreaking study of great intervention. The immense value of the insights into tastes, preferences, and aesthetics on offer cannot be underestimated. Beautifully written, this is the book that scholars and fans of popular music across all disciplines have impatiently waited for. It is truly inspiring, the kind of book you fall in love with, that gets us to reflect over how and why records become a condition of the heart Stan Hawkins, Professor of Musicology, University of Oslo It’s like two books in one: stories of some of our most beloved musicians, singers and songwriters, coupled with insights about how and why our brains decipher musical notes, melodies and lyrics in particular ways.Extraordinary insights about music, emotion and the brain...An instant classic' Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain on Music Susan Rogers found her superpower in the music world not as a musician, but as a master listener. Rogers' book is a gift to music listeners of all kinds - because in listening, we hear not only the music, we hear the sonic signature of our own soul Dan Charnas, New York Times bestselling author of Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets of why your favorite songs move you. But it’s also a story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in Los Angeles, rose to become Prince’s chief engineer for Purple Rain, and then created other No. 1 hits ,including Barenaked Ladies' "One Week," as 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.

I did originally follow along with the playlist, provided and listened to each song that was mentioned in full, but honestly that added so many hours to my audiobook experience that I couldn’t keep up with it. Plus, it was messing up my Spotify recommendations and I did mention above that I sometimes find listening to unfamiliar music to be a chore. I would dip in and out for snippets and the occasional whole, depending on how much I thought I needed a concept illustrated. I do really recommend having that playlist on hand while you’re reading, even if you don’t listen to every single song. Because it really does make the experience richer. While exploring the science of music and the brain, Rogers also takes us behind the scenes of record-making, using her insider’s ear to illuminate the music of Prince, Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, and many others. She shares records that changed her life, contrasts them with those that appeal to her coauthor and students, and encourages you to think about the records that define your own identity.My only real complaint with the book was that it sometimes gets a bit repetitive, and there’s a lot of structural redundancy about “your personal listener profile” that I feel like could’ve been left as understood. But maybe that is just the professor within the author, coming out, and desperately wanting to provide us with a syllabus. I found the entire thing very informative, and it did offer insight into the different ways that my spouse and I encounter music. Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator. Dennoch war ich sofort interessiert, als ich die ersten positiven Rezensionen zu diesem Titel las. Denn schon immer war ich fasziniert von der Frage, weshalb ich jenes mag, aber dieses nicht, eine andere Person wiederum eine Vorliebe für etwas völlig anderes hat.