Andrew Benesh’s Reviews > How Music Works > Status Update

The "Amateur" chapter is excellent. Between the discussions of hegemony in music and the ways in which music creation builds identity and problem solving, it really ties together the major ideas of the book.

As someone who doesn't go to clubs, it's a bit hard to get into the nuances of the scene chapter. Still, it has some neat ideas.

I like how collaboration is a constant theme in this book.

The chapter detailing how recording had essentially democratized through the improvements of home recording had some cool stuff, but feels unnecessarily long and filled with anecdotes.

The chapter on curation feels shallow in comparison to earlier sections. I would like more connection to how people choose music, and how that's changed over time. - more depth, and less speculation about whether algorithms will help us find new music. The argument for including contextual information with digital sources does make a lot of sense.

I never realized just how much music storage technology places the composition and use of music.

The idea of electric and synthetic instruments challenging Western ideas of music is fascinating. I kind of want to buy a cheap theremin now....

The discussion of how having access to recordings changes the way music is interpreted is neat. The kids that listening to music alone was akin to masturbation or secretive drinking is fun to compare with modern norms.

The chapter on the design of performance (from musical layering to visual presentation) has some great anecdotes. I feel like the focus could have been tighter, but the evolutionary structure does tell a compelling story.

I like the way context is explored in the first section. The balance of acoustics with behavior and meaning makes sense, and has interesting historical and sociological components.