Before You Press Play
- Read by: Amy Lyddon narrates clearly and accessibly, a good match for Hallam's research-summary format, though the 3-hour-38-minute runtime means limited opportunity for atmospheric depth.
- At its heart: Music and emotional regulation, talent versus practice, music's role in cognition and health
- Vibe: Curious, accessible, and evidence-grounded
- Short version: A compact and reliable audiobook introduction to what research actually says about music's effects on mood, development, and wellbeing.
Psychology of Music belongs to Routledge's Psychology of Everything series, a format that takes genuinely complex academic subjects and compresses them into accessible introductions for general readers. At 3 hours and 38 minutes, this audiobook covers Susan Hallam's work on how music affects mood, how musical skills develop, and how culture shapes our definition of music. It is short by design: an orientation rather than an exhaustive treatment. The question is whether 3 hours and 38 minutes is enough to do the subject real justice, and the answer, largely, is yes, provided you come in with appropriate expectations about what you're getting.
Hallam is a professor of education and music psychology at University College London, and her approach to the subject is that of a researcher synthesizing evidence rather than an advocate making a case. The book covers questions that feel personally immediate: does listening to music improve cognitive function? Is talent something you have or something you build? Why does the same piece of music sound different across cultures? She answers all of these with the kind of measured, evidence-based responses that are less dramatic than pop science treatments of the same questions but considerably more reliable and durable.
Deliberate Practice Over Natural Talent Mythology
The talent debate is the section most likely to generate discussion among listeners. Hallam's treatment of whether musical ability is a gift or something developed through learning and practice reflects the current state of the research accurately: the answer is not a clean either-or, but the evidence for deliberate practice as the primary driver of musical development is considerably stronger than popular mythology about "natural talent" suggests. This is, broadly, the territory that books like Matthew Syed's Bounce and Angela Duckworth's Grit cover in more popular terms, but Hallam approaches it from specifically musical evidence rather than from broad psychological theory.
The mood and music sections are where the audiobook format feels most appropriate. Reviewer LAS Reviewer notes that the book covers "things like mood and music, musical skills, perfect pitch versus relative pitch, music defined in different cultures," and that breadth is handled without superficiality by keeping each topic grounded in specific research findings. The discussion of perfect pitch versus relative pitch is particularly useful for listeners who have wondered about their own musical experience: why some people can identify a note cold while others need reference points, and what that distinction actually means for musical competence and development.
Lyddon Paces for Retention, Not Drama
Amy Lyddon narrates in a register that suits the format precisely: clear, accessible, and paced for information retention rather than dramatic effect. The Psychology of Everything series books are research summaries rather than narratives, and a narrator who tries to impose emotional weight on material that is fundamentally argumentative and evidentiary tends to create a mismatch. Lyddon doesn't make that mistake. She reads as someone who wants the listener to follow the argument, which is what the material requires throughout.
The 3-hour-38-minute length is a feature rather than a limitation for most listeners. Reviewer B. Morrell describes it as "thought it might be a bit light but actually really superb," which captures the experience of series books that look slight but deliver genuine substance at compressed length. The format works well for commute listening or focused single-session engagement; it's short enough that the cumulative argument stays in working memory without requiring notes or repeated listening to consolidate the material.
An Evidence Base Still Mostly Western
The compression does have costs. Topics that warrant book-length treatment, including the neuroscience of music, the developmental psychology of musical education, and the anthropology of musical universals, receive chapter-length or section-length coverage. Listeners who arrive with expertise in any of these areas will find the treatment necessarily abbreviated. This is an introduction to research questions rather than a contribution to the scholarship, and the distinction matters for calibrating expectations properly.
The cultural dimension of how music is defined varies across societies, and this is raised and handled with appropriate respect for the diversity of musical traditions. But the book's primary evidence base reflects research conducted predominantly in Western contexts. Hallam acknowledges this limitation where it's relevant, but listeners primarily interested in non-Western musical traditions will find the research coverage uneven. The health and well-being sections, by contrast, draw on a more international evidence base and are some of the book's strongest and most practically useful material.
For the Evidence, Not for the Stories
The ideal listener is someone with genuine curiosity about why music does what it does to them: the mood regulation, the memories it triggers, the way certain passages produce physical responses, and who wants a research-grounded account rather than pop-science generalizations or neuroscience metaphors. Hallam writes for that reader clearly and without condescension. The audiobook is also well-suited for music teachers, educators, or parents thinking about musical education, since the talent-versus-practice material has direct practical implications for how musical ability is cultivated in young people.
Listeners who want a narrative-driven, personality-rich audiobook about music psychology should look to books like Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music, which covers overlapping territory with more biographical and anecdotal texture. Hallam's approach is more systematic and more modest in its claims, which is a strength from a research standpoint but a limitation from an entertainment standpoint. Come to this audiobook for the evidence; look elsewhere if you primarily want the stories.
A Few Questions About Psychology of Music (The Psychology of Everything)
Is this audiobook appropriate for listeners with no background in psychology or music theory?
Yes. Hallam writes for a general audience rather than specialists, and Lyddon's narration keeps the research accessible without simplifying it. The Psychology of Everything series is specifically built around the premise that research on significant topics should be translatable to curious non-experts, and this entry fulfills that premise consistently throughout.
At only 3 hours and 38 minutes, does this audiobook provide enough depth to be worth the time?
For an introduction to the research, yes. Reviewer B. Morrell notes it was expected to be light but turned out to be genuinely substantive, and the compressed format suits the series' goal of orienting listeners to a field rather than providing comprehensive coverage. If you want depth on any single topic, such as the neuroscience of music or the development of perfect pitch, you'll need dedicated books. This audiobook excels as an entry point.
How does this audiobook handle the nature-versus-nurture question about musical talent?
Hallam reflects the current state of the research accurately: deliberate practice is a considerably stronger predictor of musical development than innate talent, but the relationship is not a simple either-or. The treatment is evidence-based and more nuanced than popular accounts of the talent debate, without oversimplifying in the direction of either pure gift or pure practice.
Does the audiobook cover how music affects physical health, not just mood and cognition?
Yes. The health and well-being section is one of the book's stronger areas, drawing on an international evidence base covering music's effects on pain management, stress response, and recovery. It's more substantive than the title might suggest and is particularly useful for listeners interested in therapeutic applications of music in clinical and everyday settings.
