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How Music Works QUOTES

How Music Works QUOTES

1 " Complete freedom is as much curse as boon; freedom within strict and well-defined confines is, to me, ideal. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

2 " In musical performances one can sense that the person on stage is having a good time even if they're singing a song about breaking up or being in a bad way. For an actor this would be anathema, it would destroy the illusion, but with singing one can have it both ways. As a singer, you can be transparent and reveal yourself on stage, in that moment, and at the same time be the person whose story is being told in the song. Not too many kinds of performance allow that. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

3 " I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea-- do I have to choose between the two? "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

4 " You might say that the universe plays the blues. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

5 " In the early days, I might have gotten on stage and begun to sing as a desperate attempt to communicate, but now I found that singing was both a physical and emotional joy. It was sensuous, a pure pleasure, which didn't take away from the emotions being expressed—even if they were melancholic. Music can do that; you can enjoy singing about something sad. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

6 " The mixtapes we made for ourselves were musical mirrors. The sadness, anger, or frustration you might be feeling at a given time could be encapsulated in the song selection. You made mixtapes that corresponded to emotional states, and they'd be avaliable to pop into the deck when each feeling needed reinforcing or soothing. The mixtape was your friend, your psychiatrist, and your solace. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

7 " The online music magazine Pitchfork once wrote that I would collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

8 " Music written by teams makes the authorship of a piece indistinct. Could it be that when hearing a song written by a team, a listener can sense that they aren't hearing an expression of a solitary individual's pain or joy, but that of a virtual conjoined person? Can we tell that an individual singer might actually represent a collective, that he might have multiple identities? Does that make the sentiments expressed more poetically universal? Dan eliminating some portion of the authorial voice make a piece of music more accessible and the singer more empathetic? "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

9 " Any kid will tell you that, yes, their music is both an escape and a survival mechanism, and that sometimes the music givesbthem hope and inspiration. It doesn't just placate and pacify. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

10 " There are two conversations going on at the same time: the story and a conversation about how the story is being told. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

11 " Everyone was doing that in their own way, rejecting things and moving on. It's just a part of discovering who you are; it's nothing special. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

12 " There's a good chance that you might be inspired by ideas that originate outside of yourself. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

13 " One forgets that part of one's performance is one's history—or sometimes the lack of it. You're playing against what an audience knows, what they expect. This seems to be true of all performers; there's baggage that gets carried into the venue that we can't see. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

14 " The radio was shouting at you, pleading with you, and seducing you. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

15 " I also realized that there were lots of unacknowledged theater forms going on all around. Our lives are filled with performances that have been so woven into our daily routine that the artificial and performative aspect has slipped into invisibility. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

16 " Powerpoint presentations are a kind of theater, a kind of augmented stand-up. Too often it's a boring and tedious genre, and audiences are subjected to the bad as well as the good. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

17 " Performers try harder. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

18 " I welcome the liberation of music from the prison of melody, rigid structure, and harmony. Why not? But I also listen to music that does adhere to those guidelines. Listening to the Music of the Spheres might be glorious, but I crave a concise song now and then, a narrative or a snapshot more than a whole universe. I can enjoy a movie or read a book in which nothing much happens, but I'm deeply conservative as well—if a song establishes itself within a pop genre, then I listen with certain expectations. I can become bored more easily by a pop song that doesn't play by its own rules than by a contemporary composition that is repetitive and static. I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea—do I have to choose between the two? "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

19 " It can often seem that those in power don't want us to enjoy making things for ourselves - they'd prefer to establish a cultural hierarchy that devalues our amateur efforts and encourages consumption rather than creation. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works

20 " The act of making music, clothes, art, or even food has a very different, and possibly more beneficial effect on us than simply consuming those things. And yet for a very long time, the attitude of the state toward teaching and funding the arts has been in direct opposition to fostering creativity among the general population. It can often seem that those in power don’t want us to enjoy making things for ourselves—they’d prefer to establish a cultural hierarchy that devalues our amateur efforts and encourages consumption rather than creation. This might sound like I believe there is some vast conspiracy at work, which I don’t, but the situation we find ourselves in is effectively the same as if there were one. The way we are taught about music, and the way it’s socially and economically positioned, affect whether it’s integrated (or not) into our lives, and even what kind of music might come into existence in the future. Capitalism tends toward the creation of passive consumers, and in many ways this tendency is counterproductive. "

― David Byrne , How Music Works