Why Do We Love the Music We Love?

(via Gizmodo) by Isaac Schultz

If you’ve ever made a playlist — for yourself or someone else — you’ve done the delicate dance of music curation. By what logic did you order the songs? What nearly made it on, but got left out, and why?

In This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You, storied sound engineer and cognitive psychologist Susan Rogers and mathematical neuroscientist Ogi Ogas explore the fundamental experience of music listening.

With surgical care, they walk the reader through the components of music, from technical aspects of music theory to abstract elements like intention and performativity, to get at the heart of where our music taste comes from.

When music gives us that special feeling — the “oh yes, THAT’S what I’m talking about” — it can be difficult to describe exactly why it spurs that emotion. We may lack the vocabulary to explain which elements of the music really worked for us. Sometimes, when music does its job perfectly, it transcends explanation entirely…

Every Moment Has A Song