Rate this book

How Music Works (2012)

by David Byrne(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1936365537 (ISBN13: 9781936365531)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

McSweeney's

review 1: This is an excellent book for anyone who likes any type of music. Or any aspect of music. This is NOT a history of Talking Heads, although Byrne obviously draws on and references his personal musical experiences to support his writing. I enjoyed the whole book (aside from the few parts where Byrne let his political beliefs bleed into his writing), but you can definitely pick and choose the chapters that are interesting to you. My favorite parts were the ones about how technologies - specifically recording and production technologies - affected music being made throughout history, and how performance venues had a similar impact. And I loved the description of the dancing exercise that transforms a chaotic group of dancers, each performing his or her own individual dance "ph... morerase", into a cohesive unit performing the exact same dance in unison.
review 2: I really enjoyed reading this book. Firstly, its soft and squishy, minimalistically white cover is just plain pretty, and I enjoy an attractive title (no, I'm serious). Secondly, David Byrne does a wonderful job looking at music, how it is created, where it comes from and how we relate to it from many different angles. His own experience as a musician and music lover serves to illustrate a point without making this a book about David Byrne or Talking Heads. Learning a bit more about how music biz works, was also interesting to me. If you can pick up an electronic version of How Music Works, give it a try: it is designed as an interactive experience complete with musical examples and more.Because by now you know that I notice these things, I will point out briefly that I managed to find two grammatical errors and two misprints in the text. What are they? Have a look for yourself... and enjoy the read along the way. less

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