Audible Empire: Music, Global Politics, Critique (Refiguring American Music) - Hardcover

"A welcome publication, adding the subjectivity and fluidity of music, sound, and listening to an already complex network of scholarly explorations about processes of empire formation. . . . This volume brings to the foreground more than an array of perspectives on the audible aspects of empire formation; it highlights the many tensions that are involved in writing history and thinking historically, about empires and about music making in general." -- Cristina Magaldi * Journal of the Society for American Music * "Audible Empire . . . offers a complex, far-reaching, and sophisticated set of perspectives for considering various constructions of empire and a wide range of sonic acts that have been and continue to be interconnected." -- Sindhumathi Revuluri * Music and Letters * "Audible Empire is a project admirably conceived and executed, consistent in its compelling, well-written, and timely scholarship." -- Ruth E. Rosenberg * Notes * "'Empire,' for most of these authors, is not restrained to political empires. Instead, it entails a broad understanding of declining national sovereignty, modern capitalism, and multinational enterprises, all reflected by and in sound. That gaze alone makes this a dynamic and interesting book for historians to consult." -- Jessica Gienow-Hecht * Canadian Journal of History *

Audible Empire rethinks the processes and mechanisms of empire and shows how musical practice has been crucial to its spread around the globe. Music is a means of comprehending empire as an audible formation, and the contributors highlight how it has been circulated, consumed, and understood through imperial logics. These fifteen interdisciplinary essays cover large swaths of genre, time, politics, and geography, and include topics such as the affective relationship between jazz and cigarettes in interwar China; the sonic landscape of the U.S.- Mexico border; the critiques of post-9/11 U.S. empire by desi rappers; and the role of tonality in the colonization of Africa. Whether focusing on Argentine tango, theorizing anticolonialist sound, or examining the music industry of postapartheid South Africa, the contributors show how the audible has been a central component in the creation of imperialist notions of reason, modernity, and culture. In doing so, they allow us to hear how empire is both made and challenged. Contributors: Kofi Agawu, Philip V. Bohlman. Michael Denning, Brent Hayes Edwards, Nan Enstad, Andrew Jones, Josh Kun, Morgan Luker, Jairo Moreno, Tejumola Olaniyan, Marc Perry, Ronald Radano, Nitasha Sharma, Micol Seigel, Gavin Steingo, Penny Von Eschen, Amanda Weidman.