The Book Prize Index

This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

Susan Rogers, Ogi Ogas

One of the Next Big Idea Club's Favorite Nonfiction Books A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2022 A legendary record producer–turned–brain scientist explains why you fall in love with music. This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets of why your favorite songs move you. But it’s also a story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in Los Angeles, rose to become Prince’s chief engineer for Purple Rain, and then created other No. 1 hits ,including Barenaked Ladies' "One Week," as one of the most successful female record producers of all time. Now an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience, Susan Rogers leads readers to musical self-awareness. She explains that we each possess a unique “listener profile” based on our brain’s natural response to seven key dimensions of any song.

Arts & CriticismArts & Criticism · medium confidenceArts & Criticism81 signalsLlm Classifier: Arts & Criticism -> Arts & CriticismKeyword Classifier: Arts & Criticism -> Arts & CriticismKeyword Classifier: Science -> ScienceScience & DiscoveryArt, Music & PerformanceEssays & Cultural CriticismTravel, Exploration & Place

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionMajor2023LonglistOfficial source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Los Angeles50%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    Your favorite music reflects a unique “listener profile” determined by your brain’s natural response to seven song dimensions.

    Model confidence 45%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    55 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 55%.