Ways of Listening - by Rollie Pemberton (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Ways of Listening is a love letter to music, a sharp analysis of our current cultural reality, and a joyful celebration of the artists who keep creating against all odds.

Music occupies a curious place in modern life, somehow omnipresent and disposable at the same time. Computers have democratized song creation. There is more music being produced now than at any point in human history and streaming platforms are the ultimate distribution model for this vast bounty.

But streaming relies on an algorithmic discovery system that guides the user's choices and encourages them to listen passively to the company's curation, while also dissuading the listener from searching for music and developing their own taste. Streamers offer meagre royalties to artists on their platforms, largely devaluing music in the public sphere. As Chappell Roan said at the 2025 Grammys, artists can barely afford to live, let alone create. And social media companies have made a whole generation of young listeners perceive music as merely background noise for content.

It all adds up to a bleak landscape for the true fan, but there's another way. Pemberton delves deep into his own discovery process to present a gentle reminder of another path for the contemporary music lover. He interrogates the obsession with the "mysterious artist" archetype, the magic of demo recordings, the racial disparity in the remastering of music, AI's struggle to understand Italo disco's strange balance of classic and cringe, what someone really means when they say they don't like the Beatles, and more.

About the Author

The son of a pioneering hip-hop radio DJ, Pemberton grew up splitting his time between Edmonton's experimental electronic and underground rap scenes, eventually developing a hybrid of both styles. Cadence Weapon has released six albums, winning the 2021 Polaris Prize for Parallel World. Pemberton has toured extensively, playing festivals like Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, Pitchfork Music Festival, Roskilde, and Primavera Sound and performing shows with artists such as Public Enemy, Diplo, Questlove, De La Soul, and many more.

Pemberton's music is known for pairing groundbreaking production with incisive, socially conscious lyricism. Pemberton served as Poet Laureate of Edmonton from 2009 to 2011. Pemberton was the narrator and a writer for the VICELAND television series Payday, and he has hosted lectures and conducted live interviews for CBC Q and Red Bull Music Academy. His debut memoir, Bedroom Rapper, was a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year.