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Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams
A song comes on—and suddenly, you’re somewhere else.
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.
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.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2026
About the author
Elizabeth Margulis
1 book1 followerElizabeth Margulis is a researcher in music cognition as well as a trained pianist. She is Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where she directs the Music Cognition Lab.
Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams (Liveright, May 2026) is her first book for general readers. It explores the science behind how music sends us somewhere else, into a personal memory or a vividly imagined scene--a powerful but often overlooked aspect of everyday listening.
Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams (Liveright, May 2026) is her first book for general readers. It explores the science behind how music sends us somewhere else, into a personal memory or a vividly imagined scene--a powerful but often overlooked aspect of everyday listening.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 7, 2026
Excellent read on so many levels. All composers, especially film/game composers, should be reading this. Such incredibly valuable insights on how people perceive music.
July 1, 2026
Transported has a genuinely fresh premise, and Elizabeth Margulis clearly knows her subject. She takes something almost everyone has experienced but rarely names: the way music quietly reroutes attention into daydreams and gives it a language.
For a while after reading the book, you notice your own attention differently when a song plays, which is more than most books of this kind achieve. You can also feel the earnest researcher behind the prose. Margulis isn't recycling TED-talk material, she is dedicated to the field.
Unfortunately, the book falls out of tune with itself. There wasn't quite enough for a single disciplined argument, so everything adjacent got pulled in from psychedelics, cognitive psychology, cross-cultural notes, and algorithmic feeds. Some of it is interesting on its own terms. But there's a difference between a book where every chapter sharpens one claim and a book where several claims share a room without knowing why.
However, the biggest issue is who it's written for. Margulis is someone for whom music produces vivid reveries, and much of the book is calibrated to readers like her. Yet, if your relationship to music is more diffuse or more cognitive, the book keeps describing an interior you can't quite step into.
Two audiobook notes. First, if a narrator is being paid to narrate a book about music, I think it should be common courtesy to pronounce the composers, researchers, and musicians in it correctly. Second, the book spends real time on musical theory and specific passages of well-known works, and the audiobook plays not a single note. Talking about chord progressions or the most reverie-inducing pieces of music without letting the listener hear them isn't a missed opportunity, it challenges the value proposition of the book itself.
Recommended for readers who already have a strong, image-rich relationship with music. It preaches to the choir with unusual conviction, but it doesn't offer a way in for anyone standing outside.
For a while after reading the book, you notice your own attention differently when a song plays, which is more than most books of this kind achieve. You can also feel the earnest researcher behind the prose. Margulis isn't recycling TED-talk material, she is dedicated to the field.
Unfortunately, the book falls out of tune with itself. There wasn't quite enough for a single disciplined argument, so everything adjacent got pulled in from psychedelics, cognitive psychology, cross-cultural notes, and algorithmic feeds. Some of it is interesting on its own terms. But there's a difference between a book where every chapter sharpens one claim and a book where several claims share a room without knowing why.
However, the biggest issue is who it's written for. Margulis is someone for whom music produces vivid reveries, and much of the book is calibrated to readers like her. Yet, if your relationship to music is more diffuse or more cognitive, the book keeps describing an interior you can't quite step into.
Two audiobook notes. First, if a narrator is being paid to narrate a book about music, I think it should be common courtesy to pronounce the composers, researchers, and musicians in it correctly. Second, the book spends real time on musical theory and specific passages of well-known works, and the audiobook plays not a single note. Talking about chord progressions or the most reverie-inducing pieces of music without letting the listener hear them isn't a missed opportunity, it challenges the value proposition of the book itself.
Recommended for readers who already have a strong, image-rich relationship with music. It preaches to the choir with unusual conviction, but it doesn't offer a way in for anyone standing outside.
Read
August 3, 2026As a vivid musical daydreamer since childhood, I was intrigued to find that this is a widespread phenomenon, and even more surprised to learn it has been intricately studied. This book was fascinating, if not a bit meandering. I think music theorists and readers in similar fields would find this more engaging than I did. For the average reader who simply experiences musical daydreams or has a deep interest in music as a "hearer," the text gets a bit dry and unfocused as the book moves along.
I'm going to skip a star rating, as I think this is the kind of book where I am not necessarily the target audience, so my rating may skew low even if the topic is well-researched.
Glad I read this and learned a bit more about the cultural and social contexts that shape musical daydreams.
I'm going to skip a star rating, as I think this is the kind of book where I am not necessarily the target audience, so my rating may skew low even if the topic is well-researched.
Glad I read this and learned a bit more about the cultural and social contexts that shape musical daydreams.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews