
Making Value
Music, Capital, and the Social
Timothy D. Taylor(Author)
Duke University Press
Published on 19. April 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4780-3035-5 (ISBN)
Description
In Making Value, Timothy D. Taylor examines how people's conceptions of value inform and shape their production and consumption of music. Drawing on anthropological value theory, Taylor theorizes music's economic and noneconomic forms of value both ethnographically and historically. He covers the creation and exchange of value in a wide range of contexts: indie rock scenes, an Irish traditional music session, the work of music managers, how supply chains function to create various forms of value, how trendspotters seek out and create value, and how musical performances act as media of value. Taylor shows that to focus on value is to attend to what is meaningful to people as they move through their worlds. Ultimately, Taylor demonstrates that theorizing value aids us in moving beyond the music itself toward understanding how musicians, workers in the music business, and audiences struggle to make and maintain what they value.
Reviews / Votes
"Providing the first systematic account of music from the perspective of a theorization of value, Timothy D. Taylor draws on a deep knowledge of North American music industries, world musics, and independent music scenes to show how value accrues to musical commodities as they move among complex scenes of exchange. By centering a theorization of value, Making Value's contribution lies in its offering of an alternative to critical thinking about music in contemporary capitalism, deriving from studies of the culture industries and Adornian critique." - Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music, King's College London "Examining how the capitalist processes of valorization, commodification, and accumulation interact with the social and cultural practices that produce and profit from musical performances and recordings, Making Value will prove enlightening to academics and students working across ethnomusicology and popular music studies as well as cultural, media, and communication studies. Its erudition, succinct chapters, discrete case studies, and familiar theoretical reference points make this important book highly teachable in the classroom." - Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, University of East LondonMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
2 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
399 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-3035-5 (9781478030355)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2024
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€32.99
Available for download
Person
Timothy D. Taylor is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Working Musicians: Labor and Creativity in Film and Television Production and Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World, both also published by Duke University Press.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Theorizing Value in Practice
1. Supply Chains and the Production of Value of Cultural Goods
2. Making Musicians into Productive Laborers
3. Trendspotters: Agents and Inspectors of Consumer Capitalism
4. Taking the Gift Out and Putting It Back In: From Cultural Goods to Commodities
5. Maintenance and Destruction of an East-Side Los Angeles Indie Rock Scene
6. World Music, Value, and Memory
7. Musical Performance as a Medium of Value
8. Circulation, Value, Exchange, and Music
Notes
References
Index
Introduction. Theorizing Value in Practice
1. Supply Chains and the Production of Value of Cultural Goods
2. Making Musicians into Productive Laborers
3. Trendspotters: Agents and Inspectors of Consumer Capitalism
4. Taking the Gift Out and Putting It Back In: From Cultural Goods to Commodities
5. Maintenance and Destruction of an East-Side Los Angeles Indie Rock Scene
6. World Music, Value, and Memory
7. Musical Performance as a Medium of Value
8. Circulation, Value, Exchange, and Music
Notes
References
Index