Mashed up

About this book

"From Ancient Times to the Present Day, writers have remarked on the unique power of music to evoke emotions, signal identity, and bond or divide entire societies, all without the benefit of literal representation. According to Aram Sinnreich, this power helps to explain why music has so often been regulated in societies around the globe--and why those regulations have been consistently resisted." "Mashed Up chronicles the rise of "configurability," an emerging musical and cultural moment rooted in today's global, networked communications infrastructure. Based on interviews with dozens of prominent DJs, attorneys, and music industry executives, the book argues that today's battles over sampling, file sharing, and the marketability of new styles such as "mash-ups" and "techno" presage social change on a far broader scale." "Àram Sinnreich is a sage guide to the emerging, perplexing, and downright vital world of configurable culture.^ He brings together a potent combination of deep academic learning, leading industry analyst credentials, and performing artist street cred. No one knows better than Sinnreich how music and technology are co-evolving."--Michael Heller, author of The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives." ""The greatest strength of this book is the broad, interdisciplinary range of its appeal: audiences interested in musicology, digital rights, street culture, and many other subjects will find it interesting, and it is written in a style that members of the general public would also appreciate.^ It is a book …

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