[Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)] [By: Turino, Thomas] [October, 2008]

by Thomas Turino

People around the world and throughout history have used music to express their inner emotions, reach out to the divine, woo lovers, celebrate weddings, inspire political movements, and lull babies to sleep. In Music as Social Life, Thomas Turino explores why it is that music and dance are so often at the center of our most profound personal and social experiences. Turino begins by developing tools to think about the special properties of music and dance that make them fundamental resources for connecting with our own lives, our communities, and the environment. These concepts are then put into practice as he analyzes various musical examples among indigenous Peruvians, rural and urban Zimbabweans, and American old-time musicians and dancers. To examine the divergent ways that music can fuel social and political movements, Turino looks at its use by the Nazi Party and by the American civil rights movement. Wide-ranging, accessible to anyone with an interest in music’s role in society, and accompanied by a compact disc, Music as Social Life is an illuminating initiation into the power of music.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Anthropology, College

Paperback

First published October 15, 2008

Reviews

[Carrie Boss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh
Had to read for intro to mued class

[FL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an unusually readable introduction to some theories that usually seem very complicated. In discussing myriad ways people interact with music in social contexts, Turino helps provide a language for a lot of phenomena that simply make sense and that are quite familiar. He deftly weaves together academic social theories with his own stories from fieldwork in a text that could leave anyone with new ways to think about how music matters to them.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read for a class, was actually really interesting!

[Krista · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book--although quite dense--had points both thought-provoking and inspiring. I feel very fortunate indeed to have had the opportunity to read and learn from such a thorough text. Music and the Arts are important: to read a work justifying why this is so was deeply moving.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never felt quite this way about a textbook before <3

[linnea ☆ﾟ. * ･ ｡ﾟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

read it for class but it still counts towards my reading goal :D

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

semiotics, participation with a dash of flow.