As his career grew, David Byrne, the Talking Heads founder went from playing CBGB to Carnegie Hall. He asks: Does the venue make the music? From outdoor drumming to Wagnerian operas to arena rock, he explores how context has pushed musical innovation.
The idea is to explain how musicians are constantly challenged to produce music that is able to adapt into various environments. This actually foster the innovation of music as musicians are able to make the most of places, that Byrne described as ‘accoustically the worst places for music concerts’ (i agree wholeheartedly), eg: basket ball halls, sport stadiums, etc. From music created for open air in Africa to popular music that are fit perfectly to the iPod experiences, Byrne gives simple examples on how music can work differently in different playground. Moreover Byrne define this as “Social Situation”, not “Musical Situation”, which is spot on and add to the testimony, that music is influenced by life and it influenced life back.
Most of the slides and explanations are a bit technical, but i think with Byrne’s clear vision, this presentation is not only enjoyable for music producers, sound engineers & musicians, but also to those that are not music nerds.