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Title details for Why You Like It by Nolan Gasser - Available

Why You Like It

The Science and Culture of Musical Taste

by Nolan Gasser
Nolan Gasser
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available

"Nolan Gasser is brilliant at explaining the beautiful machinery behind your favorite songs without taking away any of the magic." —Conan O'Brien

This program is read by the author.

From the chief architect of the Pandora Radio's Music Genome Project comes a definitive and groundbreaking examination of how your mind, body, and upbringing influence the music you love.
Everyone loves music. But what is it that makes music so universally beloved and have such a powerful effect on us?
In this sweeping and authoritative audiobook, Dr. Nolan Gasser—a composer, pianist, and musicologist, and the chief architect of the Music Genome Project, which powers Pandora Radio—breaks down what musical taste is, where it comes from, and what our favorite songs say about us.
Dr. Gasser delves into the science, psychology, and sociology that explains why humans love music so much; how our brains process music; and why you may love Queen but your best friend loves Kiss. He sheds light on why babies can clap along to rhythmic patterns and reveals the reason behind why different cultures across the globe identify the same kinds of music as happy, sad, or scary. Using easy-to-follow notated musical scores, Dr. Gasser teaches music fans how to become engaged listeners and provides them with the tools to enhance their musical preferences. He takes listeners under the hood of their favorite genres—pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, electronica, world music, and classical—and covers songs from Taylor Swift to Led Zeppelin to Kendrick Lamar to Bill Evans to Beethoven—and through their work, introduces the musical concepts behind why you hum along, tap your foot, and feel deeply.

Why You Like It will teach you how to follow the musical discourse happening within a song and thereby empower your musical taste, so you will never hear music the same way again.
"A sprawling, packed-to-the-brim study of the art and science of music, as monumental and as busy as a Bach fugue... Gasser's enterprise has a pleasingly mad-scientist feel to it, one that will attract music theory geeks as much as neuroscientists, anthropologists, psychologists, and Skynyrd fans." — Kirkus Reviews

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 30, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250319111
      • File size: 1121344 KB
      • Duration: 38:56:07

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A big advantage to listening to Nolan Gasser's deep dive into music--how the brain processes it, theories of preferences, and even a quick dip into music therapy--is the inclusion of countless musical clips for illustration. As he explains melody, harmony, and rhythm, and develops seven prototype fans for several genres--including rock, jazz, world music, and classical--the clips make his discussions a lot clearer than than they would be if one were merely seeing the scores on the page. This long audiobook ranges from straightforward to incredibly technical. Gasser paces it slowly, regardless of the complexity of the material, so sometimes his delivery is too slow. But he can be quite charming--as when he recounts his childhood dispute over whether Queen is better than Kiss. A.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 11, 2019
      The mystery of why music moves people gets a stimulating survey in this expansive treatise. Musicologist and composer Gasser, who headed Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project, investigates how music’s objective properties underlie subjective preferences in a deep dredge that covers the physics of sonic vibrations; principles of melody, harmony, and rhythm; the science of how the brain processes music and connects it with emotions; sociological theories of musical preferences, class, and fan subcultures; and a disquisition on biology and “the conceptual link between pluripotent stem cells and theme and variation.” Woven in are analyses of musical genres—pop, rock, jazz, hip-hop, electronica, world music, and classical—with exegeses of representative scored examples. (An ability to read music will help in understanding these sections.) Gasser’s writing is passionate and generally accessible, though he sometimes stumbles over the inherent difficulty of conveying music through musicology. (A discussion of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” notes the “unusually small ambitus (range)—only a 5th (B-F-sharp), with most of it limited to the top 3rd (D-F-sharp)” before suggesting “there may just be something about that simple, bayou groove that keeps its fans... coming back.”) The book is a sprawl, but serious music lovers will find much fascinating science and lore to browse.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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