When I was a kid, there didn’t seem to be a rhyme and reason to what music I loved — my tastes spanned from art rock, to show tunes, to hard rock, pop and funk classics and disco deep-dives. As I learned to play music and my music geekery bled into other genres and subgenres, I began to wonder why some songs resonated with me more than others. Did certain key signatures or chord progressions across genres draw me in? Did I have a greater affinity to songs written in certain time signatures? Was it the subject matter or lyrical content? Or some wizardry involving all of the above?

Luckily, musician and musicologist Nolan Gasser wrote “Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste” to answer these kinds of burning questions. A professional pianist since the age of 11, Gasser’s very first gig was playing cover songs at his local mall food court on weekends. “I had people asking me to play a rather eclectic repertoire — everything from Scott Joplin, Mozart, and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ every single day,” says Gasser. “It really got me thinking (maybe not in a conscious way at that point) about how varied people’s tastes are, and how people of the same age group could gravitate to different styles of music.”

Your music library, explained

As composers tend to do, Gasser would dissect various songs to better understand what might appeal to an audience. After earning his Ph.D., Gasser connected with Tim Westergren, one of the three founders of Pandora (the music app) and became head of music operation and architect of The Music Genome Project. “We came up with ‘Music Genome Project’ as a play on The Human Genome Project but I took that metaphor very seriously, aiming to break down the musical universe into different species by examining the factors that are somewhat active or potentially active in every single song,” explains Gasser. “What are the hundreds of factors of rhythm and harmony, melody and form, rhythm and sound, and lyrics and production? How can we objectively break those down? What is the shape or contour of the melody? What are the kinds of chord progressions used?”

As a result of this arduous analysis, Gasser says every song in Pandora has been analyzed by a human being sitting in front of a computer screen, categorizing all of their music into “genes.” Utilizing that imprint, they are able to forge connections between songs by the same artist and also by different artists, and, in turn, connect you with new music based on your previous choices.

In his book, Gasser also acknowledges the tremendous role sociology plays in our musical tastes. “I actually use the term ‘intraculture’ to describe cultures that take place within a culture,” he explains, likening them to subgenres of music. “A lot of it has to do with where you grew up and what kind of musical influences are in the air, but we participate in so many subcultures of affinity, just based on what we like. Intracultures provide us with access to music just because you’re a part of a group, and that group means something to you.”