'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
'Moving and absorbing, The Sound of Being Human mixes memoir,
analysis, anecdote and personal chronicle into a mosaic that evokes what
music means to the individual and the human tribe. A candid, beautiful
read'
Stuart Maconie
The Sound of Being Human explores, in detail, why music plays such a
deep-rooted role in so many lives, from before we are born to our last
days. At its heart is Jude's own story: how songs 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 flushes of early womanhood, propel her own journey
into working life, adulthood and parenthood, and look to the future.
Shaped around twelve songs, ranging from ABBA's 'Super Trouper' to Neneh
Cherry's 'Buffalo Stance', Kraftwerk's 'Radioactivity' to Martha Reeves
and the Vandellas' 'Heat Wave', the book combines memoir and historical,
scientific and cultural enquiry to show how music can shape different
versions of ourselves; how we rely upon music for comfort, for
epiphanies, and for sexual and physical connection; how we grow with
songs, and songs grow inside us, helping us come to terms with grief,
getting older and powerful memories. It is about music's power to help
us tell our own stories, whatever they are, and make them sing.
