From FT, a review of The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross; The Making of Music: A Journey With Notes by James Naughtie; This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitan; and Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks. From Wired, David Byrne and Thom Yorke discuss the real value of music; and here are David Byrne's survival strategies for emerging artists — and megastars. In Marseille, rap helps keep the peace. Rocking Lolita in Tehran: Iran’s underground music scene has more followers than ever, largely because Iranian musicians are performing on a new stage: the Internet. Is disdain for Celine Dion innate or learned, and what’s wrong with liking her music anyway? Music criticism 2.0: A maturing MP3 blogosphere grapples with the ethics, responsibility as its industry value swells.
