[Commlist] CFP - Book about Talking Heads

*Talking Heads – Academic Book Collection Call for Papers*

**

Talking Heads have proved to be one of the most influential of any of 
the groups associated with the punk and new wave scene that flourished 
in New York in the mid-1970s. They released a number of epoch-defining 
albums (/Talking Heads 77, Fear of Music, Remain in Light, Little 
Creatures/); they spawned influential and successful offshoots- David 
Byrne’s collaboration with Brian Eno on /My Life in the Bush of Ghosts/; 
Tom Tom Club (Tina Weymouth’s and Chris Frantz’s side project); and 
their forays into other media (music video; the concert film /Stop 
Making Sense/; and the feature film /True Stories/) were, for the most 
part, both critically and commercially successful. After the band’s 
dissolution, the band members, David Byrne in particular, have continued 
to produce music and to work in a variety of different cultural areas.

And yet the band itself is difficult to pin down. Simultaneously 
controlled and spontaneous; moving across a wide range of styles- from 
Velvet Underground influenced rock, through funk and Afrobeat, postpunk, 
and Americana; and with a lead singer whose lyrical output only very 
rarely touched on the standard topics of popular music. For these 
reasons (as well as for their importance as a key part of the musical 
environment of the 70s, 80s and beyond) Talking Heads are a particularly 
complex and interesting band; however, as yet, their work (and the work 
of band members after the group dissolved) has rarely come under 
academic scrutiny.

To fill this gap, we are looking for 6 - 7 ,000 word studies focusing on 
Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and/or other collective, collaborative or 
solo releases and projects from all the band members - from 1975 through 
to the present.

Subjects for discussion might include, but are not limited to, the 
following:

1) The work- thematic, analytical studies

2) The work- individual, grouped or comparative studies of studio and/or 
live albums

3) The work- musical/lyrical styles

4) The work- studio recording practice, the influence of Eno

5) The work- album artwork and visual (re)presentation

6) The band / David Byrne in performance

7) Talking Heads and geographical / aesthetic musical cultures

      o NY Punk and CBGB
      o Post-Punk / New Wave
      o trans-Atlantic identity
      o intra/inter-cultural musical hybridisation (African music,
        American popular music forms)
      o genre blending

8) The role of theoretical and academic influences

9) Cross-media/interdisciplinary work- music videos, True Stories, Stop 
Making Sense, Once in a Lifetime (Channel 4 1984), soundtracks, dance 
music, theatrical projects

10) Talking Heads as ensemble (changing band lineups/collaborations)

11) David Byrne's other cultural works (Luaka Bop label boss/author etc)

12) The band / band members in their (sub)cultural and wider contexts

Please send your proposals to Sean Albiez ((SA-TalkingHeads /at/ outlook.com) 
<mailto:(SA-TalkingHeads /at/ outlook.com)>) and David Pattie 
((D.Pattie /at/ bham.ac.uk) <(D.Pattie /at/ bham.ac.uk)>) by *Friday 16th September 2022*

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