The Endless Refrain
Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music
Published on 12. November 2024
272 pages
978-1-68589-140-4 (ISBN)
Description
A veteran music journalist argues that the rise of music streaming and the consolidation of digital platforms is decimating the musical landscape, with dire consequences for the future of our culture …
In The Endless Refrain, former Washington Post writer and editor David Rowell lays out how commercial and cultural forces have laid waste to the cultural ecosystems that have produced decades of great American music. From the scorched-earth demonetizing of artist revenue accomplished by Spotify and its ilk to the rise of dead artists "touring" via hologram, Rowell examines how a perfect storm of conditions have drained our shared musical landscape of vitality.
Combining personal memoir, intimate on-the-ground reporting, industry research, and cultural criticism, Rowell's book is a powerful indictment of a music culture gone awry, driven by conformity and subverted by the ways the internet and media influence what we listen to and how we listen to it.
In The Endless Refrain, former Washington Post writer and editor David Rowell lays out how commercial and cultural forces have laid waste to the cultural ecosystems that have produced decades of great American music. From the scorched-earth demonetizing of artist revenue accomplished by Spotify and its ilk to the rise of dead artists "touring" via hologram, Rowell examines how a perfect storm of conditions have drained our shared musical landscape of vitality.
Combining personal memoir, intimate on-the-ground reporting, industry research, and cultural criticism, Rowell's book is a powerful indictment of a music culture gone awry, driven by conformity and subverted by the ways the internet and media influence what we listen to and how we listen to it.
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Book
11/2024
Melville House Publishing
€19.50
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Person
David Rowell grew up in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For nearly 25 years he was an editor at The Washington Post Magazine and has taught literary journalism in the MFA department at American University. He is currently a senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. His previous books include the novel The Train of Small Mercies, and Wherever the Sound Takes You: Heroics and Heartbreak in Music Making. He lives just outside of Chapel Hill.
Content
The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music
David Rowell
Opening Act
The Songs Remain the Same - how public music became a loop of repetition and familiarity
Side One
All Things Must Pass. But When? The age of the golden oldie … and beyond
Side Two
How Old Music Became New Again - licensing, content, the Internet, and the weaponization of copyright
Side Three
It Goes On and On and On and On - how nostalgia propagates itself through recursion
Side Four
Journey, Tribute Bands, and the World They Made - on the road with the weirdest people in music
Side Five
OK Computer? - the rise of the algorithm and digital curation
Side Six
On the Road with the Dead - the rise of hologram performers and the future of re-animated undead music
Coda
Where Do We Go? - how we can reclaim new music in its glory and rebelliousness for a new generation
David Rowell
Opening Act
The Songs Remain the Same - how public music became a loop of repetition and familiarity
Side One
All Things Must Pass. But When? The age of the golden oldie … and beyond
Side Two
How Old Music Became New Again - licensing, content, the Internet, and the weaponization of copyright
Side Three
It Goes On and On and On and On - how nostalgia propagates itself through recursion
Side Four
Journey, Tribute Bands, and the World They Made - on the road with the weirdest people in music
Side Five
OK Computer? - the rise of the algorithm and digital curation
Side Six
On the Road with the Dead - the rise of hologram performers and the future of re-animated undead music
Coda
Where Do We Go? - how we can reclaim new music in its glory and rebelliousness for a new generation
