Categorizing Sound: Genre and Twentieth-Century Popular Music

by David Brackett

Categorizing Sound addresses the relationship between categories of music and categories of people, particularly how certain ways of organizing sounds becomes integral to how we perceive ourselves and how we feel connected to some people and disconnected from others. Presenting a series of case studies ranging from race music and old-time music of the 1920s through country and R&B of the 1980s, David Brackett explores the processes by which genres are produced. Using in-depth archival research and sophisticated theorizing about how musical categories are defined, Brackett has produced a markedly original work.

Genres: Music

376 pages, Paperback

Published July 19, 2016

Reviews

[Cana McGhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

found this to be a frustrating slog. for my taste, there’s way too many overly specific examples (laudable, for sure!) that ended up reading as overwhelming. would have benefited by focusing more on central figures, and the main argument would still come thru just fine.