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Musicians in Tune: 75 Contemporary Musicians Discuss the Creative Process
Rock and jazz musicians discuss the creative drive, the unconscious, peak artistic experiences, drugs and creativity, and creative potential
- GenresMusic
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 18, 2022
Reading this book was about as fulfilling as listening to a friend describe a dream he had last night. You know he's sincere and finds his story fascinating, but it holds little interest for you and doesn't make a lot of sense or have an ultimate purpose.
Boyd (excuse me, DR. Boyd -- making sure people know she has that PhD seems very important to her) has a hard time separating her personal life from her academic career, as she apparently has interviewed only friends from her social circle for this thesis turned book. She also inserts her own story into the mix, adding several personal photos of herself from her modeling days before the photos of her interviewees.
There's a lot of pretension here, both among the celebrity musicians and exhibited in Boyd's overuse of terms like zeitgeist, collective unconscious, and references to a person's particular "truth". Because of the subjects involved, quite often the lines were blurred between the creative process and the phenomenon of celebrity. The average person sketching in her home will not have the immediate feedback of an adoring audience to feed her creativity.
The book could have been helped enormously had Boyd delved into history (the only example I remember is a quick mention that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice while on opium); some examination of Mozart or Dvořák, for example, would have, perhaps, shown some continuity about creativity through the centuries. Boyd and her subjects seem to limit their historical perspective to tom-toms used as a communication tool, and 20th century rock and blues. Also, a look at other forms of creativity would have offered a more interesting and holistic approach. Boyd mentions her own poetry, but fails to talk to any novelists, painters, glass blowers, or others creative types outside her limited music circle.
Ultimately, I learned very little. The most interesting bits, for me, were in the early chapters which talked about the musicians' childhoods, and what types of experiences and reactions fostered their creativity. I was pleased to hear that most of the musicians had given up drugs (including alcohol in some cases), and many saw that, in retrospect, chemicals had inhibited their creativity rather than helped it.
Boyd (excuse me, DR. Boyd -- making sure people know she has that PhD seems very important to her) has a hard time separating her personal life from her academic career, as she apparently has interviewed only friends from her social circle for this thesis turned book. She also inserts her own story into the mix, adding several personal photos of herself from her modeling days before the photos of her interviewees.
There's a lot of pretension here, both among the celebrity musicians and exhibited in Boyd's overuse of terms like zeitgeist, collective unconscious, and references to a person's particular "truth". Because of the subjects involved, quite often the lines were blurred between the creative process and the phenomenon of celebrity. The average person sketching in her home will not have the immediate feedback of an adoring audience to feed her creativity.
The book could have been helped enormously had Boyd delved into history (the only example I remember is a quick mention that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice while on opium); some examination of Mozart or Dvořák, for example, would have, perhaps, shown some continuity about creativity through the centuries. Boyd and her subjects seem to limit their historical perspective to tom-toms used as a communication tool, and 20th century rock and blues. Also, a look at other forms of creativity would have offered a more interesting and holistic approach. Boyd mentions her own poetry, but fails to talk to any novelists, painters, glass blowers, or others creative types outside her limited music circle.
Ultimately, I learned very little. The most interesting bits, for me, were in the early chapters which talked about the musicians' childhoods, and what types of experiences and reactions fostered their creativity. I was pleased to hear that most of the musicians had given up drugs (including alcohol in some cases), and many saw that, in retrospect, chemicals had inhibited their creativity rather than helped it.
February 22, 2017
Take a bunch of great musicians and ask them what makes them creative and this is what you get. There are some really nice insights here and some that you probably already knew. Everything from mediation to drink, drugs, isolation, collaboration, hard work and audience energy come in to play. And lets not forget the parents... Support is super important to making a creative genius. If you want to know where some of the wonderful songs of your past come from -- this is your book.
May 10, 2011
Haha, I should have known by the fact that it was "contemporary musicians" that it was going to be out there, and all the wild colors on the cover. But no, I never heard of Jenny Boyd and it's not a wild name. This is the sort of book that you could either put down (and never find out what it says) the first time you come to a bad word, or the kind of book you could use to learn all you'd ever need to know about the weird things these people were on, but either way it wasn't my favorite.
March 27, 2014
I personally thought this book was really helpful. Being a very creative individual myself, I found that I could relate to many of the people and topics in this book. Very informative and very helpful. A must read for anyone interested in music.
January 3, 2009
Remind me to never read a Fleetwood Mac biography.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews