How Music Works

By: David Byrne

Narrated by: Andrew Garman, David Byrne

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • David Byrne’s incisive and enthusiastic look at the musical art form, from its very inceptions to the influences that shape it, whether acoustical, economic, social, or technological—now updated with a new chapter on digital curation.

“How Music Works is a buoyant hybrid of social history, anthropological survey, autobiography, personal philosophy, and business manual”—The Boston Globe

Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, David Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.

©2012, 2017 Todo Mundo, Ltd. (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Brilliantly original.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating.”—Booklist

“Extraordinary.”—The Guardian

Brilliant from start to finish!

Besides being one of the greatest working artist alive (let alone musician/songwriter), David Byrnes curiosity and exploration is thorough and thoughtful. This, to me, is a MUST read/listen for anyone interested or simply instinctively drawn to making things.

Like a class I would have liked to take in college

Though I wish there was more from the last 10 years. It got me to think about music in ways I never had before. Definitely worth listening to.

Interesting concepts about music creation

Byrne brings up issues that I never thought about regarding the creation, performance, and listener's perspective of music. He discusses how certain constraints like the acoustics of the venue it will be played, or the length of a recording on a 78 record, or the compression of CDs, all influence how music is written. The ideas of whether music is written to be listened to live or on a recording were interesting. His work with music of multiple cultures and the responses (or maybe his perception of the responses) were also quite interesting.

He kind of lost me when he spent a lot of time on issues of money in music and some of his political views - but it's his book. He managed to do quite well in spite of the bleak way he describes the renumeration for creating music.

I found the book to be engaging and thought-provoking.

One of the best

Picked this up on sale, and was pleasantly surprised. This is such a great overview of the artistic approach to pop music from one of the greats. I have always been a Talking Heads fan, but many friends make Byrne out to be a pompous and arrogant A-hole. I went into the book with no expectations but was constantly amazed by the detail and color of the author’s observations and personal experiences. I learned at least 3 books worth of history and references from the first half of this book alone. It’s truly a gift to be able to get such a vivid peek behind the curtain of one of our generations most creative pop artists.

Lovely meditation on the nature of music

It’s cool to read David Byrne in his own voice. Great rundown on business and licensing models, useful outside music in entrepreneurial ventures.

Great content, bland delivery

Many insights here are wonderful, from one of the greatest pop musicians of our time. Some of the information about the music industry is outdated, but still somewhat relevant.

The narration is pretty bland and sounds monotone, akin to a customer service automated system.

Great Book and Narrator

This is a great book that combines stories about DB's origin and development, with practical info about the music industry over time, aspects of music theory not often explained, and predictions and preferences for where music is going.

The performance of the book was great as well. I can imagine that DB used his ear for sound to select someone who presents his thoughts as he would have.

Refreshing stance on music

Very convincing points about the role of classical music. Graceful writing starts autobiographical and then gets historical and theoretical.

An Examination of Music and Sound Unlike Any Other

David Byrne’s book both informs and delights. It is both unexpected and predictable. It is both autobiographical and historical. It touches on the mystic as much as it does the scientific. He doesn’t agree with everything, and no one else would either. But he has examined music and sound from all possible directions and many different points of view.
It is impossible for me to imagine the depth and breadth of sound as it affects our existence being covered any better or any more completely. I would recommend this book to anyone as long as they enjoyed deep reflection.

Brilliant and Encyclopedic

I’m always trying to learn more about music, and David Byrne has furthered my knowledge in ways I never imagined. The fact that music was composed to fit the venues in which it was performed, had never occurred to me, nor had the features and limitations of recordings on the composition of music. Byrne explores music’s history, philosophy and science, but he also provides a thorough examination of the music business, including the different kinds of distribution contracts available to recording artists. The only thing that would have improved this book would have been if Byrne had read it, instead of just the preface. Although the reader was good, his repeated mispronunciation of Eli Broad’s surname—it’s Brode,, not Brawd—was irritating. David Byrne knows better.