Listen

On Music, Sound and Us

Michel Faber

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781838858438
• eBook ISBN:
  9781838858414
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Theory & Appreciation

A curious book that will change your relationship with the heard world

In Listen, Michel Faber's lifelong passion for music culminates in an intriguing exploration of two big questions: how we listen to music and why we listen to music. He muses on the notion of 'cool', delves into the rich lodes of commercial and aesthetic worth and interviews a panoply of people who experience music in different ways, unlocking some surprising answers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Who This Book Is For
• Do You Hear What I Hear?
• Who Doesn’t Like Music?
• The Ears of a Child 1: Hip Unhip Hooray
• The Ears of a Child 2: Something Really Bad, Like Cat Poo
• Sorry for Your Lost
• Different Strokes for Different Folks
• The Siren Call of Horrible Din
• A Needle Through Your Brow
• Somewhat Marred by an Echo
• The Force of the Blow
• On Having No Voice
• Tender Exotics
• The Kind of Things That Hegemony Just Can’t Buy
• Ambient 1: Music for Private Banking
• Let’s Hear It One More Time for Ludwig!
• Where I Got My Parka
• Overcome With All the Excitement
• The Awful Taste of Your Inferiors
• Thank You for Making My Opinion Cool
• According to Whom?
• Pleasure About Humans
• Impossible to Hear (On Rolf Harris, R. Kelly and Morrissey)
• Let’s Rumble
• Girl You Know It’s True
• The Dead Give Up Their Doonicans
• The Tracks of My Tears
• A Thing That Merely Takes Up Space and Gathers Dust
• You’ve Reached the Start
• Acknowledgements
• Song Credits
• Index