Why You Like It, Nolan Gasser
Why You Like It, Nolan Gasser
List: $49.99 | Sale: $35.00
Club: $24.99

Why You Like It
The Science and Culture of Musical Taste

Author: Nolan Gasser

Narrator: Nolan Gasser

Unabridged: 38 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/30/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

"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

About Nolan Gasser

NOLAN GASSER is a critically acclaimed composer, pianist, and musicologist. Most notably, he is the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project and the chief musicologist from its founding in 2000. Dr. Gasser lectures widely on the nature of musical taste and the intersections of music, science, and culture. He received his Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford. He lives with his wife in Petaluma, California. Why You Like It is his first book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on June 01, 2019

6.5/10 If Gasser had actually written the book he outlines at the beginning this might be one of my favorite books ever. As the primary architect of the music genome project, he states that his intentions are to write a pretty relatable dive into music structure and why people have certain affinity f......more

Goodreads review by Nicole on April 07, 2020

I first heard of Nolan Gasser during a work commute listen to NPR's "All Things Considered". He was being interviewed about this book, and was introduced as "chief musicologist and architect of Pandora Radio's Music Genome Project". Now, I've been using Pandora for years and years. From season to se......more

Goodreads review by Vicki on January 12, 2020

Despite my rating, I actually really like the musical learning I gleaned from this book. As an (extremely amature) musician myself, I read music and enjoy it but I didn't understand much music theory. This gave me a good overview of those concepts, and how to look at music as the sum of it's parts,......more

Goodreads review by Benji on June 29, 2019

' We tend to take too much of our musical taste for granted. But it is not to be taken for granted that the laws of physics and mathematics stipulate that steady frequencies produce overtones that align in perfect proportions, stacking up to produce intervals that comprise major, minor, and dominant......more

Goodreads review by David on July 06, 2019

Glasser says at the beginning that he wanted to write a big book on music and he succeeded. Problem is, there is only enough interesting stuff in it to make a regular sized one.......more