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January 2016 Vol. 53 No. 5


Verso


The following review appeared in the January 2016 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.

Humanities
Performing Arts - Music

53-2135
ML3916
2015-5266 CIP
Denning, Michael. Noise uprising: the audiopolitics of a world musical revolution. Verso, 2015. 306p index afp ISBN 9781781688564 pbk, $24.95.

A cultural historian, Denning (American studies, Yale) offers a brilliant book that serves as a time line of modern music and musical styles and, more important, a history of the evolution and influence of vinyl recordings of modern music.  He makes a wonderful presentation, showing that because of their static nature, vinyl recordings may have helped shape or transform musical styles.  Starting in 1925, Denning examines the many styles of music performed in port cities, including the musical streets of Havana and New Orleans.  As modern music advanced, so did competition to capture this music in the form of vinyl recordings.  Denning explores the idea that recordings may have influenced musical styles and the way some modern music was performed.  He points out that vinyl's influence was not limited to the length of songs and the types of instruments used in group recordings; vinyl recordings allowed live music to be recorded in dance halls and transported to living rooms, department stores, grocery stores, and any other place people gathered.

--K. George, Delgado Community College

Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.