The Sound of Being Human

A book about how music shapes every emotional stage of our lives from one of the most high-profile female pop writers in the UK today.

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.