How Music Works, by David Byrne

This book baffled me.

David Byrne, co-founder of the Talking Heads, has been a smashing success at entertaining people. He knows how to create content that gets and holds attention.

So why was this book so boring?

How Music Works is loaded with rich history, thoughtful theory, and plenty of research. It’s not autobiographical, but Bryne weaves his in own incredible perspective on, and experience in, music. He’s brilliant.

We learn why jazz is improvisational. How some concert halls are designed to make certain genres sound bad, to keep them out. How the environment music is created in and for shapes so much of its characteristics. The book is deep and thoughtful.

But the writing is bland.

It lacks rhythm. It lacks surprise. It lacks hooks and foreshadowing and unique turns of phrase—all the things Byrne has spent a lifetime creating in his music.

And that’s the puzzling thing.

The book will change the way you think about music. It will broaden your perspective of different genres and the music making process.

It’s just that getting to those insights doesn’t feel like Burning Down the House. It feels like power washing one.