For others it will be a revelation.ĭid you have an epiphany about the importance of the context of music or was it a gradual realisation that the production of music depends less on the autonomous “genius” of the musician and more on the type of venue that they intend to play in or the type of format they intend to release it on?ĭavid Byrne: It was a gradual realisation how extensive this was.

While his knowledge of and contributions to the field are incontestable, for some readers David Byrne's ninth book will seem a dry, almost academic effort. Between the covers of How Music Works, the author (described acting as 'historian, anthropologist and social scientist' in these pages) creates a topography of music an unselfish and far-reaching study on the evolution of sound in cultural and social context. It may disappoint some that How Music Works is neither biography, nor discographical history there are references to Byrne's own work and, yes, his time in Talking Heads but they are just that - points of reference. His most recent, How Music Works, is an ambitious attempt at understanding a phenomenon to which the former Talking Head has dedicated his life's work: the not particularly slender volume contains more than the usual musings on what makes good music - How Music Works is a study, by the man perhaps most well-equipped to carry it out, on what makes music at all - posing, rather than 'What', the more nuanced questions of 'Why?' and 'How?' Now 60-years-old and no longer content with being a giant in only the music world, Byrne has now written nine books. Perhaps more accurate, however, is that his presence and that of his impressive discography in contemporary music is seminal: a search of The Quietus archives alone returns 187 results - a slew of articles, reviews and interviews that either relate to Byrne directly or mention him by name in some (often reverential) way.

Vincent - it's safe to say that Scottish-born David Byrne's impact on and contribution to the music industry since the 1970s has been, at the very least, significant. Whether it's with his most lauded project, the genre-defining American New Wave band Talking Heads, working solo, or one of his many collaborations - most recently the album Love This Giant with St.

How music works byrne