Cowboy Music in This Is What It Sounds Like: A Shared Guilty Pleasure
What Is Cowboy Music in the Context of the Book?
In This Is What It Sounds Like, cowboy music is introduced during the Coda as the one genre that finally unites the two authors—Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas—after a record pull reveals they have almost completely opposite tastes. Cowboy music, once called “western music,” is distinct from its cousin country music. The book names specific artists: Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, Montana Slim, and Marty Robbins. It is characterized by simple arrangements, pastoral imagery, and a pervasive sense of lonely, optimistic wandering.
The authors treat cowboy music not as a major motif woven through the narrative but as a culminating symbol of musical bridge-building. It appears only in the final pages, yet it carries significant thematic weight because it demonstrates how two people with diverging listener profiles can share a powerful emotional experience through the same record.
Where Cowboy Music Recurs and How Its Meaning Changes
The symbol appears exclusively in the Coda. However, its meaning shifts depending on which author describes it:
- For Susan Rogers, cowboy music evokes a tactile, intimate connection. She imagines “smell the dust and feel the warmth rising from a horse’s neck.” The loneliness she senses is wrapped in an optimistic, intrepid spirit. She even compares the songs to those a dog would sing—pure love and companionship.
- For Ogi Ogas, the same genre triggers a cinematic, wide-screen vision: a lone traveler under a vast big-sky panorama, jauntily journeying into the unknown with a hint of wistful melancholy. For him, the music is about adventure and refusing to submit to sorrow or fear.
Thus, the literal genre stays the same, but the internal imagery and emotional payoff are unique to each listener. This illustrates one of the book’s central arguments: music is co-created between artist and listener (see the theme of co-creation of meaning between artist and listener). The same sound can carry two people to different landscapes while still providing a shared “jolt of delight.”
Connection to Themes and Characters
Authenticity
Cowboy music is naturally unpolished and straightforward. Its emotional honesty connects to the book’s theme of authenticity in musical expression. Rogers notes that cowboy music feels different from country music; its simplicity taps into a pure, vulnerable love. This aligns with the epigraph from Tommy Jordan: “The wrong note played with gusto always sounds better than the right note played timidly.” Cowboy music often features imperfect, heartfelt performances that radiate authenticity.
Listener Profile and Self-Discovery
The very structure of This Is What It Sounds Like is built on the listener profile and self-discovery framework. Cowboy music becomes the tool by which Rogers and Ogas discover a hidden intersection in their otherwise opposite profiles. Ogas’s guilty pleasure reveals a part of his musical self he wouldn’t have guessed, and Rogers’s shows her sentimental side.
Novelty and Risk-Taking
The act of admitting a guilty pleasure is itself a form of novelty and risk-taking. The authors step away from impressing each other and instead share records they would “be embarrassed to admit you liked.” This risk pays off by forging a genuine connection.
Emotional Power of Melody and Rhythm
Cowboy songs rely on simple, singable melodies and steady rhythms. The book’s theme of the emotional power of melody and rhythm is embodied here: both authors are moved not by complex timbres or clever lyrics but by the basic melodic shapes and pacing that evoke loneliness and hope.
Character Connections
- Susan Rogers: Her background as a record producer and engineer (working with Prince and Miles Davis) gave her a technical ear, yet her taste in cowboy music is personal, not professional. It shows the veteran producer’s own raw, unguarded listening self.
- Ogi Ogas: As a coauthor and cognitive scientist, Ogas’s cowboy-music visualization of a traveler under a big sky reflects his analytical nature—he sees the journey as a metaphor for life’s unknown.
- Prince and Miles Davis are not directly involved in the cowboy music moment, but their influence hovers: Prince taught Rogers to trust her instincts, and Miles Davis taught her that active listening is an art. Both lessons are at play when she listens to a simple cowboy song with full attention.
Four Study Questions with Answers
1. Why do the authors introduce cowboy music as a “guilty pleasure” rather than a proud preference? What does this reveal about listener identity?
The concept of a guilty pleasure is central to the book’s exploration of the listener profile. A guilty pleasure is a record you keep private because it might not fit your public musical identity. By sharing these songs, Rogers and Ogas strip away pretense and reveal facets of their musical selves they’d rather not have others know. This honesty aligns with the spirit of a record pull—it’s about what you actually love, not what looks impressive. Cowboy music becomes the one genre where their hidden sides intersect.
2. Compare the personal imagery cowboy music triggers for Susan Rogers versus Ogi Ogas. What does this difference tell us about the co-creation of meaning?
Rogers imagines warmth, dust, and a horse’s neck—tactile, animal, intimate. She smells the prairie and feels a dog’s loyalty. Ogas sees a vast landscape with a lone traveler, a journey into the unknown tinted with melancholy. The difference shows that the same musical signals can activate completely different mental scenes depending on the listener’s past experiences, personality, and even sensory memory. Yet both feel loneliness, optimism, and adventure. This supports the book’s claim that music is a co-creation: the performer provides the sound, but the listener supplies the world it inhabits.
3. How does the cowboy music symbol connect to the theme of authenticity, particularly the epigraph from Tommy Jordan?
Tommy Jordan’s epigraph— “The wrong note played with gusto always sounds better than the right note played timidly”—praises emotional commitment over technical perfection. Cowboy music often has a raw, unpolished quality; it doesn’t rely on studio polish or virtuosic playing. The authors respond to that vulnerable, human sound. Rogers notes “simplicity seems to tap into the kind of pure love I feel when I am with animals.” That purity is a form of sonic authenticity. The cowboy singer belts out the song without self-consciousness, and that fearlessness is precisely what makes the music feel genuine.
4. At the end of the Coda, the authors state that “music is, above all, a form of sharing.” How does the cowboy music example illustrate this principle in action?
The entire record pull was an exercise in sharing, but it failed to create a strong connection until they each named a guilty pleasure. When Ogi played “Cool Water” and Rogers responded, they “discovered an unexpectedly joyous intersection.” Music became a shared language that transcended their vastly different listener profiles. The book argues that a record can provide “two people with the same jolt of delight, creating the opportunity for a connection that can run deeper than words.” Cowboy music is the ultimate proof that even when people live on different musical streets, one song can build a bridge.