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David Byrne

How Music Works Hardcover – September 12, 2012

by David Byrne (Author)

1,395 ratings

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How Music Works is David Byrne’s remarkable and buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about. In it he explores how profoundly music is shaped by its time and place, and he explains how the advent of recording technology in the twentieth century forever changed our relationship to playing, performing, and listening to music.

Acting as historian and anthropologist, raconteur and social scientist, he searches for patterns—and shows how those patterns have affected his own work over the years with Talking Heads and his many collaborators, from Brian Eno to Caetano Veloso. Byrne sees music as part of a larger, almost Darwinian pattern of adaptations and responses to its cultural and physical context. His range is panoptic, taking us from Wagnerian opera houses to African villages, from his earliest high school reel-to-reel recordings to his latest work in a home music studio (and all the big studios in between).

Touching on the joy, the physics, and even the business of making music, How Music Works is a brainy, irresistible adventure and an impassioned argument about music’s liberating, life-affirming power.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

McSweeney's
Publication date

September 12, 2012
Dimensions

7.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1936365537
ISBN-13

978-1936365531
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, September 2012: It's no surprise that David Byrne knows his music. As the creative force behind Talking Heads and many solo and collaborative ventures, he's been writing, playing, and recording music for decades. What is surprising is how well his voice translates to the page. In this wide-ranging, occasionally autobiographical analysis of the evolution and inner workings of the music industry, Byrne explores his own deep curiosity about the "patterns in how music is written, recorded, distributed, and received." He is an opinionated and well-educated tour guide, and the resulting essays--on topics from rockers' clothes to the role of the turntable, concert stages to recording studios--will give you an entirely new perspective on the complex journey a song takes from conception to your iPod. --Neal Thompson

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Most people know idiosyncratic, Scottish-born David Byrne as the front man of that great new wave band, Talking Heads. But he is also an author, painter, photographer, and film and record producer. In this wide-ranging celebration of the power of music, he discusses, among many topics, the early days of the recording industry, various types of music venues, birdsong and whale calls, the significance of mixtapes, the development of CDs, his love of African rhythms, and the concept of creativity and what it means to be creative. But he also mentions his own career as well as the many collaborators he has worked with, including English musician and producer Brian Eno, Brazilian composer and singer Caetano Veloso, and DJ Fatboy Slim. He describes the origin of his twitchy stage persona and acknowledges his own shyness, describing himself as “a withdrawn introvert,” whose most comfortable way of communicating was, he says, onstage. (“Poor Susan Boyle; I can identify,” he writes). At one point, he even self-diagnoses himself as having a mild form of Asperger’s syndrome. He concludes by asking provocative questions: What is music good for? Why do we need music? “Funding future creativity is a worthy investment,” he insists. Endlessly fascinating, insightful, and intelligent. --June Sawyers

From Bookforum

Byrne's book tells a version of the musical life that is deliberately less dramatic and heroic than first-person accounts by musicians usually are. That's because How Music Works isn't just a memoir... it meanders at some points, or lapses into a digest of Byrne's broad reading on various subjects. In a book that covers so much ground, often with a zoomed-in level of detailed focus, it's up to the reader to find the through lines that speak to his or her particular concerns. —Simon Reynolds

Review

"From the former Talking Heads frontman, a supremely intelligent, superbly written dissection of music as an art form and way of life...Byrne touches on all kinds of music from all ages and every part of the world... Highly recommended—anyone at all interested in music will learn a lot from this book."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)

"In this fascinating meditation, Talking Heads frontman Byrne (Bicycle Diaries) explores how social and practical context, more than individual authorship, shaped music making in history and his own career... his chapters on Heads recording sessions are some of the most insightful accounts of musical creativity yet penned. The result is a surprising challenge to the romantic cliché of musical genius... Byrne’s erudite and entertaining prose reveals him to be a true musical intellectual, with serious and revealing things to say about his art."
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“David Byrne is a brilliantly original, eccentric rock star, and he has written a book to match his protean talents ... What’s best about [it] is that Byrne concentrates on his own experience, from a teenage geek splicing layers of guitar feedback on his father’s tape recorder (he had a mild self-diagnosed case of Asperger’s syndrome, he writes) to arty if neo-primitive rock star with the early Talking Heads at CBGB to increasingly sophisticated, globe-wandering art-rocker, happily collaborating with all manner of world musicians and pop-technological innovators.”—John Rockwell, The New York Times Book Review

"Endlessly fascinating, insightful, and intelligent."
—June Sawyers, Booklist (Starred Review)

"[How Music Works is] the book [Byrne] was born to write. I could make a good case for calling this How Art Works or even How Everything Works."—Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

"Byrne explores a whole symphony of argument in this extraordinary book with the precise, technical enthusiasm you'd expect from the painfully bright art school-educated son – born in Scotland, raised in the States – of an electrical engineer, occasionally mopping his fevered brow in the crestfallen manner of a 19th-century poet... It's fascinating."—Mark Ellen, The Guardian

"'How Music Works,' is as engaging as it is eclectic: a buoyant hybrid of social history, anthropological survey, autobiography, personal philosophy, and business manual, sometimes on the same page... We’re changed. Even for the most ardent explorers (and Byrne is one) this is some seriously unknowable territory."—The Boston Globe

“By all accounts, Byrne’s style and energy are as apparent on the page as on the stage.”—Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine

“[Byrne] wraps his keen cultural insights in a sheath of self-aware subjectivity and unapologetic personal conviction, with just the right amount of conversational candor”—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

"How Music Works is a good read for anyone interested in art and technology and how creativity has been transformed in the digital age."—Bryant Frazer, Studio Daily

“Truly dazzling, covering a staggering scope of topics ... Almost every page [is] a song.” —Jason Heller, The Onion A.V. Club

“In the course of How Music Works, Byrne integrates his discussion of all the issues of recording and live performance into a personal account of his own career. Although this book stops short of turning into a memoir or autobiography, fans seeking a behind-the-scenes account of Byrne's life and times won't be disappointed ... An essential guide to performance and recording, honest and up-to-date, and filled with both practical advice and insightful commentary.”—Ted Gioia, The San Francisco Chronicle

“Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Jay Z, even Daniel Lanois have all given us books in recent years. And they’ve all been interesting and worth reading. But none of them is as good as David Byrne’s book ... He weaves his account of the evolution of music from animals to humans and the history of changes in the way music studios work into the most accessible and unpretentious narrative of such a story that I have yet come across.”—David Rothenberg, The Globe and Mail

“A decidedly generous book — welcoming, informal, digressive, full of ideas and intelligence — and one has the pleasant sense that Byrne is speaking directly to the reader, sharing a few confidences he has picked up over the years. ” —Tim Page, The Washington Post

“An accomplished celebration of an ever-evolving art form that can alter how we look at ourselves and the world... a meticulously researched and hugely absorbing history of music”—Fiona Sturges, The Independent

“An entertaining and erudite book, from a figure who has spent his career proving that those two adjectives can happily coexist ... The chapter on the economics of music should be required reading for all 16-year-olds tinkering with their GarageBand software and dreaming of dollar signs, while the section on “How to Make A Scene” is nothing less than a manual for urban regeneration through pop culture ... A serious, straightforward account of an art form that also manages to be inspiring. You could do a lot worse than use it as a thinking-outside-the-box management manual or a college primer. Art and Society 101: Stop Making Sense.”—Peter Aspden, Financial Times

“David Byrne deserves great praise for How Music Works. It is as accessible as pop yet able to posit deep and startlingly original thoughts and discoveries in almost every paragraph ... This book will make you hear music in a different way.—Oliver Keens, The Telegraph

“Smart and impeccably researched ... A text to read and pick through time and again ... all this is what you’d expect, and hope for, from the foremost heady apologist of pop music. It’s a must-read for anyone who has ever felt moved by a catchy tune and wanted more.”—James Ramsay, BlackBook

About the Author

David Byrne is a Scottish-born Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and cofounder of Talking Heads. He has been the recipient of many awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe. The author of Bicycle Diaries and The New Sins, Byrne lives in New York City.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ McSweeney's (September 12, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1936365537
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1936365531
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.44 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #391,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #147 in Music Business (Books)
- #163 in Music Appreciation (Books)
- #790 in Music History & Criticism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,395 ratings

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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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Top reviews from the United States

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JC Davenport

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.

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.

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Dr. Debra Jan Bibel

Musical Musings: A Hodge-Podge

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 7, 2012

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Byrne begins his wide-ranging historical, technological, psychological and sociological examination of music with a novel insight: architecture of musical venues shape composition and instrumental arrangements. Regarding huge gothic cathedrals, intimate nightclubs, and jungle camp sites, room reverberation, volume of space, and audience vocal ambience dictate modal versus scale works, instrument development, and performance dynamics. The great revolutionary divide was recording technology, and musicians discovered that what works live does not necesarily achieve the same result on vinyl, tape, CD, or .mp3, and vice versa. Expectations often lead to disappointment and the performance and performer suffers. With such an interesting introduction, the book offers much promise. It almost fulfills expectations with both personal and general tidbits and theses that reward the reader, though for myself his personal examples are somewhat weaker.

The second chapter is an musical autobiographical section describing the evolution of his music and stage attire over the succeeding eras of rock. In his world travels, his encounter with Japanese and Balinese traditional music and theatre art had a profound influence on the development of his stage craft. One of his suits clearly had classic Japanese origins.

Chapters 3 and 4 return to musicology with an expansion of the role of technology, recording and playback. The historical account is amusing when considering the delusions of reality instilled by each new device on the unconditioned and uneducated ear. The ideal of recordings was and remains an actual live performance, particularly among classical music fans; but the alternative worthy philosophy is the electronic creation of uniquely shaped sound itself, as with tape editing, synthesizers and digital programming, and electric instrument design. Oddly, computerized editing of recordings to achieve perfection in tempo, pitch, and so forth proved imperfect to the ear and lacking in warmth and positive emotional value. Byrne does not elaborate in later chapters, but recordings (and its transmission over radio) changed society by uniting peoples, speeding musical development, and (for instance, in Brazil) of overturning governmental policy of approved musical forms. I do not share Bryne's lament about the calculus-like wave sectioning of digital CDs over analogue LPs because of psychoacoutics, an aging ear, and the fact that speakers are yet analogue in their cone movement and shaping. Of interest is Byrne's belief that we are now so awash in music, indeed private music on personal .mp3 players and smart phones, that live performances are becoming more important, as that increasingly rare commodity, silence. I enjoyed Bryne's relating, in brief James Burke fashion, the connection of the Chinese mouth organ, the shen, to digital computers.

Chapter 5 is again more personal with Bryne's experiences in a recording studio and the art, engineering, and strategy of creating an album. Entire books have been written and documentary films have focused on this subject, but the use of computers on mixing boards is a new phenomenon.

The following chapter discusses his collaborations. He had already mentioned his albums with Brian Eno, but now Byrne moves beyond Talking Heads by developing music with Caetano Veloso and choreographer Twyla Tharp and creating with Norman Cook [Fatboy Slim] a theatrical piece on the Philippine's Imelda Marcos.

Chapter 7 is all about the business and financial side of the music industry. There are pie charts. He explains the very recent changes in industry, when musicians can edit and mix their music on their laptop computers and distribute it via digital download and cloud companies and promote themselves with YouTube videos and have kickstarter campaigns to get public underwriters. The giant brick & mortar record shops (Tower, Borders, Virgin Megastore) are no more and the power of music labels are severely diminished. This chapter should be read by anyone considering how to create and promote their own music; he describes various business models.

The next chapter furthers practical advice on the choice of venues, song material, the courage to be different, responsibility to band members and fellow musicians, and so on. It is a peculiar chapter for such a book.

Chapter 9 pulls back to a shotgun approach critical of musical elitism and lauding the amateur musician. In the days before mass-marketed recordings, there was a piano in the parlor. Even in the 1960s, every kid (yours truly included) had an acoustic guitar, singing folk songs. Until very recently, courses in music appreciation were dedicated only to classical music and rarely jazz. Governmental and corporate funding erected costly symphony halls and museums. Byrne seems to ignore the reality that these measures were to preserve and encourage endangered music styles and that the masses are doing fine in supporting pop and avant-garde culture, filling stadiums and arenas and small local music joints. Symphony halls are not restricted to dead European composers; I have heard contemporary American, Japanese, Argentinian, Iranian, and other world composers. Still, the point is taken when middle and high schools do not offer music and art classes and other nations support amateur musicians, music clubs, and youth bands and orchestras. Music and art should not be passive art forms.

The final chapter covers music as a human, biological, and indeed metaphysical essence. This historical and anthropological section sketches prehistorical, ancient, and early modern musical instruments, musical sciences, and philosophies. Everything vibrates, from atoms to planets. He does not include it, but string theory of matter involves vibrating strands of energy. Bryne briefly mentions the differing scales of music across the planet, the relationship of language and speech to music, neurological imprinting of music and its performance, music in religious rituals [Taliban and similar zealots aside], the natural ambient music appreciated by John Cage and the composed ambient music of Satie, Eno, and Feldman, and various other aspects of music. Bryne can only touch upon these large subjects as he closes the book. While it may lead to further reading, I find the section too scattered to be truly effective.

This grand book, with its padded cover, offers a little of everything to everyone. Fans of Bryne, as leader of the Talking Heads or as musicologist, will surely find much to appreciate here. I do think, however, that he could have prepared two smaller books, one dedicated to the practice of musicmaking today and one to music's historical and anthropological aspects.

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Top reviews from other countries

Michael H.

A great read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 18, 2019

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Let's face it, if you're going to read a book about how music and the industry work, who better than David Byrne to write it? His style of writing makes it an easy read and he even goes into detail about the money side of things, which has always been interesting to me. If you like music, are interested in the business side of it or you simply what to know more about it from someone who lived it, then you'll love this book!

5 people found this helpful

G Godmon

Excellent read by a man who knows his stuff

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 5, 2021

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A clever, absorbing 'A level' intense book covering all aspects of music. David Byrne's style of writing is relaxed but really covers all areas in depth. Particularly enlightening was the money side of getting music out to the listener; it changed my purchasing habits completely. I buy direct from the artists own website now. Highly recommended if you love your sounds.

Mr. Michael Adams

Fascinating.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 14, 2018

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A very good book. Written in an almost 'chatty' style, so very easy to read. Lots of fascinating information and insights into music generally (of all sorts). Plus quite detailed description of how David has worked before Talking Heads and equally interesting how his work has developed in the years since that band. If you liked TH and David's solo work I am sure you will find this a very enlightening read.

5 people found this helpful

S. Luke

what a great introduction to the wonders of music

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 27, 2014

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I didn't know really what to expect from this book. I'm tired of music biographies in general but this book is not that. It contains insightful biographical details that inspire but the primary takeaway is a fresh understanding of what music really is and a determination to find out a lot more.

Once In A Lifetime provided a soundtrack to everything that was good about being an emerging adolescent of the late 70s and early 80s and I always wondered how they arrived at that finished piece. Now I know and I also have some validation that my own songwriting and composing instincts weren't so whacky after all, so thanks David for giving me that.

Buy this book. You will come back to it from time to time. Essential reading for anyone who wants to learn about music and should perhaps be part of a standard curriculum for music in general.

4 people found this helpful

Bookreader

Started well but tailed off

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 7, 2021

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Really enjoyed the first chapter or two of this, found it fascinating, but it just went downhill for me personally after. Maybe it got a little too deep, especially in the final chapters, I found it more of a chore to read in the end, which felt a shame as it started so well.

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