How Music Dies (or Lives)

February 15, 2016
Grammy-winning record producer and world-traveler Brennan, full of ideas and opinions, presents a hefty, bracing tome overstuffed with trenchant observations and anecdotes on the homogenization of music and the democratization of art. The 102 short chapters address everything from consumerism to aural culture. All music, Brennan insists, is local music. He persuasively makes his case that music, more than any other art form, can be a salve for the wounded soul. One Adele song, he suggests, has done more to help people through heartache than the entire history of psychiatry. He recalls how, when working in a psychiatric emergency room, a middle-aged woman suffering from schizophrenia who refused to speak or make eye contact, was mesmerized by footage of Springsteen performing Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) Interspersed throughout are anecdotes about Brennan's experiences with field recordings from Rwanda to Vietnam. He concludes by making some concrete suggestions on how to make music matter again in our own lives, which can be as simple as listening to one song a day in a different language.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)