Jan 2: Music Books #1: "The Sound of being human"

I am going to share a few books that are relevant to my musical adventures as the year progresses.

This particular book was the one that gave me the idea of starting this blog project in fact.

It was the model for this year of blogging - my latest 365 project. My GeoLibrary project is also still going strong after 12 years.

The book is written by Jude Rogers, who is a Guardian journalist and writer. You can use the website to search for her pieces, most of which are connected to the theme of the blog in some way. She will be mentioned quite a few times during the course of the year I am sure.

The book is now available in paperback too.

‘Too often we treat popular music as wallpaper surrounding us as we live our lives. 

Jude Rogers shows the emotional and cerebral heft such music can have. 

It’s a personal journey which becomes universal. Fascinating’

Ian Rankin

Jude discusses the importance of music to people's lives through the medium of a number of songs which were important to her at stages in her life.

Here's a description of the book from the publishers:

The sound of being human explores, in detail, why music plays such a deep-rooted role in so many lives.

At its heart is Jude's own story: how music helped her wrestle with the grief of losing her father at age five; concoct her own sense of self as a lonely adolescent; sky-rocket her relationships, both real and imagined, in the mad flushes of early womanhood, and propel her own journey into working life, adulthood and parenthood. through memoir and scientific enquiry, this book shows how different songs shape different versions of ourselves; how we rely upon music for comfort, for epiphanies, for sexual and physical connection; how we grow with music and songs grow inside us and help us come to terms with grief and powerful memories. 

It is about music's power to help us tell our own stories, whatever they are, and make them sing.

The book is excellent, and feature a number of songs which are of particular importance to the author and the period of time when they remember them being siginficant - all articulated really beautifully.

This article is an extract from the book and will give you a sense of how good it is.

“A piece of familiar music [therefore] serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye.... 

Often a song has been a soundtrack for them during a particular summer, or a period hanging out with a specific group of friends, or a time spent with significant others. This is why the teenage years, for many people, are quite common triggers for these memories.”

Professor Petr Janata, University of California

The structure of the book, themed around songs was also the structure of a John Harris book - 'Maybe I'm Amazed' on the power of music to connect with his son. More on that later in the year...

I'm going to try to do something similar as the year progresses, and identify songs or albums which are significant to particular periods of time in my life - and if you have similar songs please get in touch to tell me all about them.

I'll also be asking you at various times about the songs that matter so much to you.... and will be sharing some of the memories of geographers of my acquaintance and others.

As well as books, there are various social media feeds which I will also share.

One which is particularly useful is Albumism.

It shares details of albums released on each day... some days had a remarkable number of important albums released over the years....

Let me know of any other musical books that are significant to you in the comments below, and I'll share a reading list in a month or so.... thanks to those who have shared some ideas on the Google Form which you can find on the first post on the blog.