Record Cultures: The Transformation of the U.S. Recording Industry. By Kyle Barnett. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2020. 320 pp. ISBN 978-0-472-03877-0

Barnett deftly translates the dynamism of a diverse, largely experimental and unsettled industrial environment – illuminating the professional and personal lives of those connected to it (from talent scouts through to record labels’ owners, recording artists, radio hosts and listeners). Among its ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Popular Music 2022, Vol.41 (4), p.566-568
Main Author: Roy, Elodie A.
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Archives & records
Genre
Mass media
Music industry
Musical recordings
Radio
Record labels
Recording industry
Review
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Barnett deftly translates the dynamism of a diverse, largely experimental and unsettled industrial environment – illuminating the professional and personal lives of those connected to it (from talent scouts through to record labels’ owners, recording artists, radio hosts and listeners). Among its many themes and histories, the book retraces the energetic flourishing of independent record companies in the 1920s; the rush to capture and commoditise previously unrecorded vernacular music; the development of listening practices across media platforms; and the impact of the Great Depression on the organisation of the US recording industry. Not only was phonography part of a larger media formation, but recorded sound also played a foundational role in the structuring of other media, as Barnett claims that ‘[s]ound recordings have long been both the raw material used by and for other media of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and an industry all its own’ (p. 10).
ISSN:0261-1430
1474-0095
DOI:10.1017/S0261143022000514