Author: David Byrne
Title: How Music Works
Publisher: McSweeny’s Books
Buy:  Amazon

Recommended by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

This is a book every musician should or must read. HOW MUSIC WORKS tells musicians what they should know about their metier. Here is a man who wants to share his knowledge and experience with us musicians. He writes very comprehensive. No doubt: he loves music and enjoys being a musician.

How Music Works is David Byrne‘s buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about. Drawing on his work over the years with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and myriad collaborators—along with journeys to Wagnerian opera houses, African villages, and anywhere music exists—Byrne shows how music emerges from cultural circumstance as much as individual creativity. It is his magnum opus, and an impassioned argument about music’s liberating, life-affirming power.

Byrne writes,

“I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off… I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored… If you think success in the world of music is determined by the number of records sold, or the size of your house or bank account, then I’m not the expert for you. I am more interested in how people can manage a whole lifetime in music.”