Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture [Paperback]

Timothy D Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415936845 | ISBN-13: 978-0415936842 | Publication Date: October 14, 2001

In Strange Sounds, Timothy D. Taylor explains the wonder and anxiety provoked by a technological revolution that began in the 1940s and gathers steam daily. Taylor discusses the ultural role of technology, its use in making music, and the inevitable concerns about "authenticity" that arise from electronic music. Informative and highly entertaining for both music fans and scholars, Strange Sounds is a provocative look at how we perform, listen to, and understand music today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Tim Taylor deftly and insightfully brings concepts from science and technology studies to bear on contemporary world music and its antecedents. This book makes the machinery of music speak. -- Paul Rabinow, University of California, Berkeley
This is one of the first books to demonstrate how sound technologies are socially embedded and reappropriated in a variety of musical cultures. Taylor shows that throughout the esoteric history of electronic music up to modern rave, the common issue remains how humans give meaning to technology. Strange Sounds is a fascinating, wide-ranging, and provocative account of the incorporation of technology into one of the most important human social activities--music making.. -- Trevor Pinch, Cornell University
Weaving together a richly interdisciplinary theoretical Trevor Pinch, Cornell Universityrounding, close attention to musical developments-- including Pierre Schaeffer's musique concrete, space age pop, world music sampling, electronic dance music, and the MP3 phenomenon--together with a commitment to understanding how musicians and listeners actually use technology, Strange Sounds will be stimulating and engaging reading for anyone with an interest in the ways culture and technology interact. -- Joseph Auner, SUNY-Stony Brook
Tim Taylor always makes music social, but never simply replaces the powerful materiality of sound with its sociology. Strange Sounds is not simple ideological readings of musical texts but critical cultural studies of music at its best--work that brings a complex and serious piece of musical history out of the closet and into the lived foreground of music as social practice. -- Steven Feld, New York University
...Itrange Sounds is a book both ambitious in concept and interesting to read, and it offers many new insights on a fascinating topic. -- Hans-Joachim Braun Universitat der Bundeswehr Hamburg
Even those without an explicit interest in popular music, digital technology, or subcultures will find his book a satisfying and thought-provoking volume. -- American Historical Review
Volume 16, No. 1
Strange Sounds is an enjoyable read. The book's user-friendly format is further aided by its organization into various case studies, grouped under three main headings. -- Joanna Demers, University of Southern California, Journal of Popular Music

About the Author

Timothy D. Taylor is Asssistant Professor of Music at Columbia University. He is author of Global Pop: World Music, World Markets, also published by Routledge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (October 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415936845
• ISBN-13: 978-0415936842
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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