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.)


This is What It Sounds Like distils a lifetime's expertise as a producer and an awardwinning 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.
In helping readers understand and embrace their personal musical identity, Rogers
explores the different ways music appeals to our mind and body, how falling in love with a
song is a lot like falling in love with a person, and what your preferred music reveals about
what you need to feel whole. Told in a lively, empathetic style, with fascinating stories of
encounters with musicians from Prince to Miles Davis to David Byrne, This is What it
Sounds Like will change your musical life.