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Catalog description

Rarely does one group capture the sound and spirit of an era, then expand their original music concept—through songs, film, and even the business of music itself—to a degree that their echoes can be clearly heard forty years later. The Talking Heads, the New York foursome that were born in the cultural maelstrom of New York’s punk scene of the 1970s, achieved all of that and much more in their fifteen year history. Led by forward-thinking frontman David Byrne, the group were the apotheosis of what an “art band” should sound like, driven by musical curiosity while rocking hard and maintaining popular embrace. The band’s timeline encompasses the musical development of popular American music from the ‘70s until now, touching upon groundbreaking trends (punk, disco, World Music and hip-hop), technologies (synthesizers, sampling), musical approaches (song constructionism, lateral thinking), themes and arguments (artist-as-producer, musical imperialism.) That Byrne’s own career continues to produce singular music is further proof that the enduring impact of the Talking Heads is due for serious academic study.