In early America, every sound had a living, willful force at its source.

In early America, every sound had a living, wilful force at its source - sometimes these forces were not human or even visible. The author recreates in detail a world remote from our own, one in which sounds were charged with meaning and power.

This reader collects primary documents on the phonograph, cinema, and radio before WWII to show how Americans slowly came to grips with the idea of recorded and mediated sound. Through readings from advertisements, newspaper and magazine articles, popular fiction, correspondence, and sheet music, one gains an understanding of how early-20th-century Americans changed from music makers into consumers.

Sound Rising challenges our perception of Long Island Sound in many surprising ways. The Sound was at the forefront of American trade with the West Indies and its location placed it in a position to influence the course of history during the critical years between 1750 and 1820. Its multitude of small ports, coves, and navigable rivers provided a distinct advantage by thwarting British efforts to enforce trade restrictions and collect taxes. Merchants' desire for free trade and the avoidance of customs duties set the stage for war. Long Island Sound played a crucial role in America's Revolutionary War victory when its naval vessels, privateers, and whaleboat raiders swarmed out of these same ports to interdict British supplies and force major changes in the enemy's strategic war plans. This groundbreaking, true story relates the Sound's involvement in the capture of Fort Louisbourg, rampant smuggling, the Revolutionary War, the Undeclared War with France and the War of 1812.

This study provides a history of sound recording from the acoustic phonograph to digital sound technology. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Outside of music, the importance of sound and listening have been greatly overlooked in Latin American history. Visual media has dominated cultural studies, affording an incomplete record of the modern era. This edited volume presents an original analysis of the role of sound in Latin American and Caribbean societies, from the late nineteenth century to the present. The contributors examine the importance of sound in the purveyance of power, gender roles, race, community, religion, and populism. They also demonstrate how sound is essential to the formation of citizenship and nationalism. Sonic media, and radio in particular, have become primary tools for contesting political issues. In that vein, the contributors view the control of radio transmission and those who manipulate its content for political gain. Conversely, they show how, in neoliberal climates, radio programs have exposed corruption and provided a voice for activism. The chapters address sonic production in a variety of media: radio, Internet, digital recordings, phonographs, speeches, carnival performances, fireworks festivals, and the reinterpretation of sound in literature. They examine the embodied experience of listening and its importance to memory coding and identity formation. This collection looks to sonic media as an essential vehicle for transmitting ideologies, imagined communities, and culture. As the contributors discern, sound is ubiquitous, and its study is therefore crucial to understanding the flow of information and influence in Latin America and globally.

A vibrant history of acoustical technology and aural culture in early-twentieth-century America. In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology. They listened as newly critical consumers of aural commodities. By examining the technologies that produced this sound, as well as the culture that enthusiastically consumed it, Thompson recovers a lost dimension of the Machine Age and deepens our understanding of the experience of change that characterized the era. Reverberation equations, sound meters, microphones, and acoustical tiles were deployed in places as varied as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's office skyscrapers, and the soundstages of Hollywood. The control provided by these technologies, however, was applied in ways that denied the particularity of place, and the diverse spaces of modern America began to sound alike as a universal new sound predominated. Although this sound—clear, direct, efficient, and nonreverberant—had little to say about the physical spaces in which it was produced, it speaks volumes about the culture that created it. By listening to it, Thompson constructs a compelling new account of the experience of modernity in America.

Now in paperback, the definitive visual history of Motown, the Detroit-based record company that became a music powerhouse. The music of Motown defined an era. From the Jackson 5 and Diana Ross to Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, Berry Gordy and his right-hand man, Barney Ales, built the most successful independent record label in the world. Not only did Motown represent the most iconic recording artists of its time and produce countless global hits—it created a cultural institution that redefined pop and gave us the vision of a new America: vibrant, innovative, and racially equal. This new paperback edition of the first official visual history of the label includes a dazzling array of images, and unprecedented access to the archives of the makers and stars of Motown. Extensive specially commissioned photography of treasures extracted from the Motown archives, as well as the personal collections of Barney Ales and Motown stars, lends new insight into the lives of the legends. Motown also draws on interviews with key players from the label’s colorful history, including Motown founder Berry Gordy; Barney Ales; Smokey Robinson; Mary Wilson, founding member of the Supremes; and many more.

"Argues that musical imagery in the art of American painter Thomas Hart Benton was part of a larger belief in the capacity of sound to register and convey meaning"--Provided by publisher.

"From the label that signed America’s jazz legends in the ‘50s and ‘60s, a look at the music, its stars and its continuing influence." —People Hot on the heels of one of the most talked-about jazz books in years comes the musically-enhanced, strictly limited Collector’s Edition. Slipcased with vinyl reissues of ten legendary recordings on Verve, this is an exceptional opportunity to own a unique slice of jazz history. All recordings remastered at Abbey Road Studios Pressed onto 180g heavyweight vinyl for optimum sound quality All album sleeves printed with stunning original artwork Packaged in a dual-compartment cloth-bound display case Strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide Signed by the author Includes the following vinyl pressings: Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker With Strings (1950) Count Basie and His Orchestra, April in Paris (1955) Billie Holiday, Lady Sings the Blues (1956) Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Ella And Louis (1956) Stan Getz, Big Band Bossa Nova (1962) Quincy Jones and His Orchestra, Big Band Bossa Nova (1962) Bill Evans, Conversations With Myself (1963) The Oscar Peterson Trio, Night Train (1963) Jimmy Smith, The Cat (1964) George Benson, Giblet Gravy (1968)