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How Music Works Paperback – January 1, 2013

by David Byrne (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,995 ratings
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How Music Works
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Canongate Books Ltd
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 2013
  4. Dimensions
    6.46 x 1.1 x 8.43 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    9780857862525
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0857862525
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0857862529
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Canongate Books Ltd (January 1, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780857862525
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0857862525
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.1 x 8.43 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,995 ratings

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David Byrne

David Byrne

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A cofounder of the musical group Talking Heads, David Byrne has also released several solo albums in addition to collaborating with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, and Brian Eno. His art includes photography and installation works and has been published in five books. He lives in New York and he recently added some new bike racks of his own design around town, thanks to the Department of Transportation.

Photo © Catalina Kulczar-Marin

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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
1,995 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JC Davenport
5.0 out of 5 stars Profound
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2022
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Like a lot of music I discover, I feel like I'm late to the party for this book. It came out ten years ago, but was updated some in 2017. I think It is still immediate and relevant, the only minor changes in music business the near death of the CD and the takeover of streaming. Overall I think it is well deserving of a classic, "must read" for music fans. This is one of the best books I have read in a while. There is entertaining history and numerous personal stories from Byrne, but before and after that he adds insightful and profound chapters on music history, how we think of music and how that keeps changing. Later there is terrific commentary on succeeding in music business, succeeding in creating a "scene" and how to better teach the next generation. The last chapter was partially over my head, but no less important. That's ok because I have a feeling this may be on my re-read list. I have to appreciate that David Byrne, despite his success and the fact that he must know this is an awesome book, uses this platform to promote music itself, and not so much David Byrne.

Finally and oddly for me, I would say don't skip the chapter on the music business. I think I always kind of thought of musicians as somehow spoiled rich people who had more money than they knew what to do with. That also goes for actors and athletes in my small brain. But this book somehow conveys the reality that they are all "temp" workers, working gig to gig, choosing to pursue their art/heart over perhaps more rational/longer term professions. Ok a lot of them are still rich. But after reading this I think . . you guys deserve all the money you can get.
10 people found this helpful
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Lizzy EH
5.0 out of 5 stars David Byrne is brilliant and so is this book.
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2023
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I loved this book!. As a long time admirer of David Byrne’s creative, thoughtful and brilliant musician and artist.
He is also a thoughtful human that transcends music into enlightened thoughts and brilliant ideas about life. So inspiring!

Many people may not be as interested as I am, understandably. That is a warning that it is not for most. It is for dedicated, earnest people who have a passion to learn more about David Byrne. It is definitely not a casual read. Listening to his music is a wonderful way to experience his life inspiration too.

It’s a longer read than I thought and complex. However, it was pleasurable and worth the time for me.. I’m thrilled to find this book. I may read it again in the near future. It’s a keeper!

There are a very few mentions of outdated technologies as it changes so quickly, but that is easy to disregard.

It is his biography up to the time that this was written. It is about the evolution of his career, influences, experiences and creative processes for him and others. There is a deep connection about how he was inspired to collaborate with other musicians and find meanings from different cultures. Later in the book he addresses the complexity of the music business. Throughout the book I was able to better understand him.
6 people found this helpful
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Acorn
4.0 out of 5 stars Music & more!
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2012
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David Byrne is best known for his work with Talking Heads, his collaborations with various other artists and the diversity of the musical styles that he embraces. He is an enthusiastic amateur in the original sense of that word: a man in love with music. In recent years he has also taken to writing and it is hard not to be impressed by the keen interest he takes in the world around him. This is the first book in which he turns his attention to music: what it is, why it moves us, how it has been shaped by technology and its physical surroundings, and the way that modern capitalism turned it into a lucrative business. Well, lucrative for some.

He hypothesizes that music is made to fit the physical locations in which it is performed, and later looks at how technology has both shaped music and how music can be played and heard. There are plenty of examples, but there are also some things that contradict his argument. Mozart might have written music to suit the parlours of his patrons, but brash and bossy Wagner demanded that bigger halls be built to accommodate his musical ego. The technology of recording limited what could be played as well as the duration of songs, but people (including Byrne) were always pushing new technology to do more, experimenting with ways to subvert existing limits. What he shows in fact is that the physical constraints of venues and technology are in constant tension with music makers and performers, and it is this which propels innovation. His deterministic argument is therefore too one-sided. He covers this field well, but another chapter on instruments themselves would have rounded out his theme.

The chapter `My Life in Performance' is largely autobiographical, but does look at how artistry and ritual have been incorporated into the way music is performed. Byrne stresses the ephemeral nature of live musical performance, something we tend to forget when we have recordings that we can access anytime. How a performance looks and feels, whether it moves us to get up and dance, or sing along, determines whether the memory remains with us. At its best, live musical performance is a social event, an opportunity for sharing joy.

Byrne is a firm believer that music making should be collaborative and social. He notes how modern recording technology has turned us from being music makers and singers into being passive consumers, most typically these days in a cocoon of our own headphones. Recording has made us believe that there is a single `ideal' version of a song or piece of music, meaning that we underappreciate the diversity that live performance allows. Technology appears to have made us richer by making music ubiquitous, but in fact we are poorer because it has robbed us of creativity. When was the last time you and your family or friends sat around and sang, or played a rollicking tune?

There is quite a bit of detail in this book about the music business and why some artists make money while many do not. Byrne tries to map out six models for making money out of recorded music, but I found this aspect of the book rather limited in its vision. It may be that the long twentieth century was the exception in turning recorded music into gold. Before recording, money was made from performance. Modern technology allowed fortunes to be made in producing and selling recordings, but now digital technology might be the undoing of this parasitic industry.

People can not only produce and distribute their own music via their laptops, they can also download and share other people's music without paying anyone. Some artists have already experimented with giving away music online, but most continue to charge. Companies like Apple are determined to reincarnate the old record industry in digital form, but it only takes one paid-for file to hit the web and then it can be everywhere. Recording company executives gag on their business lunches over this sort of thing, but it might be good for creativity if it means that digital versions of songs eventually become free advertisements and that money is again generated by live performance. The number of live shows would increase, as would the number of bands and singers, and artists unable to perform live would (mercifully) disappear. Creative control would revert to artists and small teams of tour managers rather than the big entrepreneurs. Byrne never quite gets to these consequences of technology, but the evidence he presents and the nature of the business models he lists underline how threatened the old recording industry now is.

There is some repetition in this book, and the odd weak chapter, such as the one on how to create a music `scene' (almost wholly based on Byrne's experiences at the CBGB club in New York). But there is much that will engross you and make you think about music more generally. Despite a life in recording, Byrne remains committed to live performance and encourages people to express their feelings through music and song. He is a firm believer in the inspirational value of music making, as well as stressing the discipline and patience it requires. Mastering an instrument, training your voice and crafting a good song are all skills that can make us better people, even if few of us will be geniuses at it. And when we create and perform together, there is a community and fellowship that allows emotion and pleasure to be shared.

You don't have to be a diehard music fan to like this book. It is a thoughtful look at the role of art and creativity in our lives, as well as the mechanics and economics of music. In our modern, lonely world of ear buds and doof-doof cars, Byrne sees a great deal of alienation from the rich role that music can play in our lives. When I was a child, a local street sweeper used to walk around our neighbourhood singing at the top of his voice while he worked. We all thought he was nuts, but perhaps he was the one enjoying the real world after all.
29 people found this helpful
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Cesar Cuellar
5.0 out of 5 stars Is there something that David Byrne can not do?
Reviewed in Mexico on October 26, 2021
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My book was delivered in good conditions, so nothing relevant there. The book itself is great, amazing insight of all things involved in the music business. David Byrne shows amazing writing skills by sharing his experiences and illustrating his know-how.
One person found this helpful
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Borias
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfeito
Reviewed in Spain on April 21, 2024
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O artigo é muito bom.
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Big Al
5.0 out of 5 stars Great, thought provoking work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2023
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An enjoyable and informative read, and lots of common ground if you’ve been in anyway involved in the music industry over the last 30+ years.

Will now revisit all the Talking Heads albums with renewed interest
One person found this helpful
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Parsec
5.0 out of 5 stars Hochinteressant!
Reviewed in Germany on May 2, 2022
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Das David Byrne nicht nur ein sehr innovativer Musiker, sondern auch ein kluger Kopf und ein guter Beobachter ist, hat dieser Ausnahmekünstler seit den späten 70ern immer und immer wieder bewiesen... sei es bei den unsterblichen Talking Heads oder auf Solopfaden.

Mit HOW MUSIC WORKS legt Byrne ein hochinteressantes, cleveres und schlichtweg enorm unterhaltsames Buch vor - mit autobiographischen Bezügen analysiert Byrne, wie Musik ihre Wirkung entfaltet. Es macht großen Spaß, Byrne bei seinen Ausführungen zu folgen, und in vielen Punkten liefert er sehr schlüssige und originelle Sichtweisen. Man merkt dem Autor den enormen Erfahrungsschatz seiner fast 50 Jahre lange Karriere an - hier legt ein Künstler seine Gedanken nieder, welcher sich in vielen Kunstformen aktiv war und ist, und der immer wieder bereit war, neue Ausdrucksformen zu verwenden und auch sich neu zu erfinden.

Der Schreibstil ist dabei sehr klar und strukturiert, und bei all dem auch noch sehr instruktiv, aber immer unterhaltsam... Längen hat dieses durchaus umfangreiche Buch nicht.

Ein Punkt, welcher bei der Lektüre dieses Buches etwas irritiert, ist der Umstand, dass David Byrne, wenn es um das Werk der Talking Heads geht, die Beiträge der anderen drei Bandmitglieder relativ wenig würdigt... Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz und Jerry Harrison werden eher am Rande erwähnt, und es entsteht bei der Lektüre unwillkürlich das Gefühl, das mindestens 95 % des Schaffens der Talking Heads von David Byrne stammt, was in dieser Form sicherlich nicht stimmt. Der Streit um den kreativen Input war es angeblich auch, welcher das Ende der Talking Heads besiegelt hat, und wenn ich das vorliegende Buch unter diesem Gesichtspunkt lese klingt dies irgendwie einleuchtend. Über seine sehr produktive Zusammenarbeit mit Brain Eno schreibt David Byrne beispielsweise wesentlich mehr als über die Zusammenarbeit mit den übrigen Mitgliedern der Band, die ihn so berühmt gemacht hat. Dieser Kritikpunkt ist allerdings eher sekundär und macht das vorliegende Buch und seine Ausführungen nicht weniger interessant und lesenswert.

Alles in allem: nicht nur für Talking Heads und / oder David Byrne Fans ein hochinteressantes Buch!
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Stefano Bianco
5.0 out of 5 stars Opera fondamentale
Reviewed in Italy on January 19, 2021
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E' un saggio fondamentale se sei musicista o semplicemente appassionato, con cura tassonomica l' autore analizza i meccanismi del mercato. Talvolta un po' prolisso e superato (ad esempio quando parla del passaggio dal fonografo al digitale), ma negli ultimi capitoli le informazioni su come costruire un piano industriale per un prodotto discografico sono utili e affascinanti, sempre tenendo presente che Byrne si muove nel mercato internazionale/anglosassone.
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