'This is What it Sounds Like' by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas
Hearing is not the same as listening. As Susan Rogers writes in This is What it Sounds Like, listening is an active process, “and becoming a competent musical listener requires curiosity, effort, and love.” Obviously, what we chose to listen to says a lot about who we are. Rogers brings a unique background to the project. She’s a cognitive neuroscientist and a record producer whose career took flight at Prince’s Paisley Park. Rogers cowrote with science writer Ogi Ogas—and found they had little in common musically, but their discussions were revelatory—self-revelatory as well as giving them the gift of sharing. We respond to music in our own unique ways and, Rogers concludes, “it is fortunate for human beings that, on occasion, a record provides two people with the same jolt of delight, creating the opportunity for a connection that can run deeper than words.”
