Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the Present [Paperback]

For over three decades now, David Byrne has been a leading light in American culture - in popular music, experimental theatre, film, television, fine art, and writing. Based on the cultural capital he gained with his groundbreaking band Talking Heads, Byrne is able to enter into collaborations with many artists, some of popular fame -Brian Eno and Jonathan Demme, for example - and others known best in more specialized circles - such as Joseph Kosuth, Twyla Tharp, and Caetano Veloso. The map of Byrne's collaborations, including the casual and incidental ones, reveals an ongoing effort to combine avant-gardism with popular appeal.


This highly original and illustrated account of David Byrne's career is structured by choosing a specific abstract approach, or a combination of two approaches, for each chapter, discussing the parallels and contradictions between such approaches to benefit the interpretation of Byrne's art. As a result, the fertile conceptual brew that characterizes Byrne's way of making art is present from the beginning, while each chapter adds to thorough insight and developing perspective.

List of illustrations
INTRODUCTION

The world is a song

Singer and conceptual artist

Mythology and methodology

Conceptual Romanticism

The method of this book



Part One: STRIPPING DOWN ROCK SONGS

The tentative rejection of mimesis

Cybernetics as inspiration

The first years of Talking Heads

Ethological and neurological aspects of music

Experiments with rhythm, texture and persona



Part Two: A WIDER MUSICAL COMMUNITY

Music and dance as social exchange

Isolated voices embedded in rhythm

At the crossroads: Remain In Light

Comparative studies of myth, archetypes and ritual

Archetypal conflicts: goin' boom boom boom
Speaking in Tongues: persona as ritual texture


Part Three: RITUAL IN DAILY LIFE