Songs In The Key of MP3: The New Icons of the Internet Age

by Liam Inscoe-Jones

It's 2013. You're a teenager squinting at your laptop in the dead of night, flicking between iTunes and YouTube and PirateBay. Endless reams of artists unspool at the click of a button. New forms of musical discovery open up before your very eyes. This evolving digital landscape exists beyond the radio, HMV and even the most extensive record collection. You've entered a whole new world and, suddenly, just about everything feels possible.

In Songs in the Key of The New Icons of the Internet Age, Liam Inscoe-Jones explores five contemporary artists who broke the old rules of sound, style and the music industry at Devonté Hynes (of Blood Orange), FKA Twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt and SOPHIE. Each began their careers as obscure outsiders but, over time, they helped to re-shape pop culture in their image. Through these five extraordinary figures and an eclectic supporting cast of dozens more, Inscoe-Jones paints a picture of the sonic landscape of the last ten years, exploring the influence of their dazzling music on pop culture, the internet and ourselves.

An unorthodox mix of criticism, biography and music history - and featuring interviews with the likes of Caroline Polachek, Daniel Lopatin and Nicolás Jaar - Songs in the Key of MP3 is a book of endless curiosity and wonder; a salutary attempt to define pop culture in a fast and ephemeral age.

Genres: Music, Cultural

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2026

Reviews

[Adam Messinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve spent most of my life feeling as if I am living at the end of culture. That no one will ever do it like the ‘90s and that culture from the ‘80s is the only stuff worth lending any time to analyzing. And while we are certainly taking the idea of the end of history to new extremes in the 2020s, this book made me excited to have lived through the 2010s and to be alive today to see what comes next. I went to a 2010’s night at Zebulon recently and was thrown by the scattershot of music they played from 1738 to Rather Be by someone named Clean Bandit. It made me feel like we did not have a unifying cultural language to describe my youth. But it was so nice to read a book that not only devotes time and serious consideration to this period of music, but also considers it as a huge turning point in the culture.

Essential reading for any music fan or anyone who was a young person in the year 2014.

[Jasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in my local indie book shop and was very much drawn in by the prospect of a Caroline Polachek interview. The book takes you through the musical journeys of 5 musicians (Devonté Hynes, FKA Twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt and SOPHIE) all up and coming artists with massive influence over their respective genres. When I read musical reviews/biographies, I'm sometimes put off by writers being overly elitist or critical but this wasn't the case with this book at all. It's refreshing to read a detailed and in depth analysis/background from somebody motivated by a passion and love for music.

Liam Inscoe-Jones illustrates very well the collaborative nature of music. Nothing exists in a vacuum and this is especially true for music. We wouldn't have Blood Orange without artists like Charles Mingus or Janet Jackson. And we wouldn't have songs like All That (ft queen Carly Rae Jepsen) without Devonté Hynes. The same applies to all these artists. Twigs was shaped by Arca, Oneohtrix Point Never by The Beatles, Earl Sweatshirt by his collaborators in Odd Future and SOPHIE by Autechre.

Over the past couple of years, I've really put in an effort to diversify my music taste and give myself a proper musical education. In an age of AI generated spotify playlists and algorithm echo chambers, this isn't made easy! And so this book felt like the perfect fit for me. Reading this and excitedly recognising names I already know and love has given me an appreciation for all of these musicians. So yes thanks LSJ for painting a very detailed picture of how these artists have gained notoriety! I am now making my way through all of their music.

[Chris Bookley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeitgeisty.

[Rob Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In the final chapter of Retromania, one of Reynolds' concluding thoughts is a plea to leave the culture of nostalgia behind us. ‘Maybe forgetting,' he claims, 'is as essential in culture as it is existentially and emotionally necessary for individuals.' What this overlooks is that the shape of culture, the history of art itself, is defined by stubborn, active remembering.”

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautiful brilliant ode to the boundary-pushing music of 2010s music. the worthy antithesis to mark fisher’s “hauntology” and “lost futures.” rip mark fisher u wouldve loved oil of every pearls un-insides REALLY WHOLESOME WELL-WRITTEN PASSIONATE BOOK ABT MUSIC !!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doesn't has a clean thesis that runs throughout, despite the subtitle, but this is a class series of mini and not-so-mini biographies of artists and their respective scenes; the sort of long-form music journalism [old man whose blog was aggregated on elbo.ws and received a takedown notice from Cut Copy voice] you don't get so much of these days. Very fun to listen along with each artists as you read, and the playlists linked within are top and all.

[Camiel Leake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Part music criticism part response to mark fisher’s cultural pessimism part biographical all killer no filler.

Next time someone says there is no good music now you can shove this book in their mouths.

[Joshua Liles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait to see who will stand as the pioneers of music in 2023-2033

[Beth Jamieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn’t normally pick up a book like this but I’m so glad I did…eloquently written, captivating, and it has opened my eyes to a lot of new music. Thoroughly enjoyed!

[Jai · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Songs In The Key of MP3' is an incredibly well-researched and eloquent account of how the internet has changed the way in which artists can write, produce, collaborate and release music in the 21st century, all through the lens of five contemporary and cutting-edge musicians. Whereas other authors might draw upon well-worn examples, Liam Inscoe-Jones (clearly a passionate music fan himself) shines a spotlight on five exciting artists - Dev Hynes, fka twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, Earl Sweatshirt and SOPHIE - names which may or may not be familiar to even the most diehard music fan, using each artist's backstory to show how they innovated to make sounds that were uniquely their own.

I was struck by how the author fluidly weaves traditional biography, music criticism and comment alongside elements of social history to tell a coherent and accessible story of how music has changed from 2013 onwards, and how it's positioned to change even further going forward. The gap between fringe artist and the mainstream has never been smaller, Inscoe-Jones tells us, evidencing collaborations between the likes of Dev Hynes and Carly Rae Jepsen, or Daniel Lopatin and The Weeknd. To be a music fan now is to be able to use the internet to hop seamlessly between genre, form and language like never before, moving far beyond unhelpful and outdated classification labels.

This book is essential reading for music fans who know some of the best music that has ever been created is being made right now, but also those who might be jaded and wary and need convincing that the best years of music are still ahead of us. I'd recommend wholeheartedly.

NOTE: Thank you to the author for providing an advance copy of the book.

[sheenewood68 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Applies the same mythos and drama to the careers of various 2010s artists that are constantly applied to Boomer icons, and despite its faults - probably could have benefitted from a really sympathetic editor who knows the material covered, the sections vary a little in quality with the SOPHIE section being by far the leader - it is very winning and charming in doing so, and 1/4 into the game it is alarming how few 21st century music history books get commissioned and published (by comparison, Revolution In The Head was published 24 years after the end of The Beatles).

[Jasmine D · Rating 3 out of 5]

dnf as my library loan was up but a good book so far. I'll add a proper rating if I return to it.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduced me to so much good music and brought back some amazing memories, absolutely devoured this

[P S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun - especially the earl chapter

[Jim Purbrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when musicians grow up with instant access to all of recorded music ever?

Liam Inscoe-Jones explores the consequences of this new golden age of music discovery by shining a light on 5 of its glittering treasures: Devonté Hynes who now combines classical and R&B careers as Blood Orange, FKA Twigs, Oneohtrix Point Never, who switches from Superbowl productions to high concept electronica, Earl Sweatshirt's hip-hop renaissance and SOPHIE, who executed a single minded pursuit of the future of music from her laptop.

Ending with the story of SOPHIE was interesting: while the other featured artists were sponges soaking up music from everywhere, SOPHIE worked in a bubble, sealing herself away from other music which might taint her pure vision of the future. In her case access to cheap enough compute to enable real-time synthesis was more important than instant access to all of music, but all of the stories highlight the incredible possibilities afforded by a connected world which allows instant access to all recorded music, all possible sounds and every other person on the planet.

Songs In The Key of MP3 introduced me to a whole world of exciting new music I'll be checking out for months to come and left me excited to hear what the coming years will bring. Music is just getting started, but you need to know where to look to find the gold. Luckily Liam Inscoe-Jones has provided us with an excellent treasure map.