Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams, Margulis

Reliving past heartbreak. Picturing a serene future. Imagining a fantastical scene. Across genres, music has an uncanny ability to carry us into distinct inner worlds. In Transported, acclaimed music cognition researcher Elizabeth Margulis explores the phenomenon of musical daydreams — the vivid, spontaneous, emotionally charged images, stories and memories we lapse into while listening to music — and argues that these everyday reveries offer a powerful and underappreciated window into how we think, feel, and connect.

Combining cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, ethnography and revelations from her own teaching and pathbreaking research, Margulis shows not only that musical imaginings are widespread and meaningful — but also that daydreams which seem deeply personal are often widely shared. Music can alleviate anxiety, ignite creativity and foster connection in our increasingly fragmented era.

At a time when attention is perpetually under siege, Transported makes a powerful case for music as one of the last spaces where the mind is still free to wander — and reminds us that these wanderings are more meaningful and more important to our individual and collective well-being than we’ve ever realized.

Elizabeth Margulis is professor of music and director of the Music Cognition Lab at Princeton University. Her book On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind won the Wallace Berry Award from the Society for Music Theory.