Music Cognition is the field that covers everything having to do with how we think about, perceive, and overall experience music. It includes perspectives from neuroscience, philosophy, ethnomusicology, music theory, and more.
The Routledge Companion to Music Cognition. This is one of the best resources out there right now on Music Cognition, especially since it’s such a new field. You can dig into the subject as deeply as you’d like, as each section begins with a general idea of the topic, provides further readings for ideas you may not be familiar with, and then dives profoundly into each topic. The editor is also one of my professors, and he is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about everything in the field (which is vast), and his words exude that passion. I highly recommend this as an introduction to the field, if you’re interested.
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The Oxford Handbook of Music and Emotion. If you’re at all interested in how music interacts with our emotions, definitely check this one out. The book is arranged topically: multi-disciplinary perspectives (including psychology, philosophy, sociology, and more), how we measure emotion and music, emotion and music making, emotion and music listening, personality and development, and applications. If you’re new to reading scientific studies, it’s also a great introduction to understanding the benefits and detriments to different experimental methods.