ABSTRACT
Talking Heads’ Fear of Musicis about ways or modes of thought as much as it is often allusively about the contents or objects of thought. Accordingly, the title of Talking Heads’ third album does not concern music as an object of fear; rather, it refers to music as the medium of fear, or the vehicle that articulates and provides a means of negotiation of various objects of fear. Talking Heads’ songs were always rhythmic, “the groove was always there”, says Byrne, “it served as a sonic and psychological safety net, a link to the body. Rhythm forms the basis of a social bond in which the sound of the beat becomes the minimal vehicle for a kind of enunciation, an assent to sound that recognises its beat in the rhythm of the Other, that is to say, the school and the musical ensemble that are articulated by the regularity of repeated sound.
