"How Music Works" Explains How Music Works

David Byrne's new book How Music Works is impressive on many levels: the book itself is a work of art -- it has a black and white minimalist cover (which is slightly mushy to the touch) but inside there are all sorts of color visuals: photos and lyric sheets and pie charts and medieval sketches -- and Byrne covers it all . . . how context affects music; a history of CBGB's; the recording methods of The Talking Heads; a precise breakdown of how much money he made on his last two albums, with pie charts and all expenses and profits laid out for the curious reader; a tutorial on what elements are necessary to create a music "scene"; plenty of music theory and philosophy; some art history; a quick history of recorded sound, from Edison to MP3's . . . and his writing is clever, precise, and clutter-free . . . plus he got me to start listening to King Tubby . . . ten burning houses out of ten.

5 comments:

zman said...

King tubby! Did you read my pending Gheorghe post or is this another miracle?

Dave said...

i did not read it! i was just playing "king tubby" for my kids in the car!

this is getting weird.

zman said...

You should download DJ Wade's reggae oldies mixtape. Foreshadowing...

rob said...

ten of ten! a reviewing miracle!

Professor G. Truck said...

we don't take the word "miracle" lightly around here.

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