Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music

by Kyle Devine

The hidden material histories of music. Music is seen as the most immaterial of the arts, and recorded music as a progress of dematerialization—an evolution from physical discs to invisible digits. In Decomposed , Kyle Devine offers another perspective. He shows that recorded music has always been a significant exploiter of both natural and human resources, and that its reliance on these resources is more problematic today than ever before. Devine uncovers the hidden history of recorded music—what recordings are made of and what happens to them when they are disposed of. Devine's story focuses on three forms of materiality. Before 1950, 78 rpm records were made of shellac, a bug-based resin. Between 1950 and 2000, formats such as LPs, cassettes, and CDs were all made of petroleum-based plastic. Today, recordings exist as data-based audio files. Devine describes the people who harvest and process these materials, from women and children in the Global South to scientists and industrialists in the Global North. He reminds us that vinyl records are oil products, and that the so-called vinyl revival is part of petrocapitalism. The supposed immateriality of music as data is belied by the energy required to power the internet and the devices required to access music online. We tend to think of the recordings we buy as finished products. Devine offers an essential backstory. He reveals how a range of apparently peripheral people and processes are actually central to what music is, how it works, and why it matters.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Politics, Environment

328 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2019

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

We just don’t think of the geopolitics behind the Recording Industry. But you could not have had shellac records at the dawn of the record making, without a whole bunch of women and children out there collecting that insect resin in Colonial India, as well as quarry workers, scientists, and chemical engineers. Shellac comes from “lac, the sappy secretion of a beetle native to Asia.” Output could range from 1 to 4 million kilograms of resin per season. These records were still mass produced in India until the mid 70’s. Shellac was also scarce because the Navy used it as a non-corrosive paint. Shellac factories had 30,000 workers in “horrible” conditions working dawn to dusk every day of the week. Wages were the lowest in India. Limestone acted as the best filler in records because it was smooth, the best recording limestone came from Indiana. Painter J.M.W. Turner had a pigment advisor in Michael Faraday. Many of the top chemical companies got their start creating synthetic dyes. You can read paintings and reduce their original color to their historical pigments as well (see “PBS Giving the Mona Lisa a digital makeover”). Thomas Edison was “the largest individual user in the United states of carbolic acid” for making phonograph records. He started making so much Phenol that he’d sell Bayer his overstock so they could make aspirin. This book is as much about quarrymen and beetles, as it is about the Quarrymen and the Beatles. When we see a wood table, we say, “yep, that’s wood” but when we see music packaging and CDs we don’t think “yep, that’s crude oil and gas”.

45 records were created for jukeboxes which needed constant updating with the latest hits for establishments to be hip. The LP (20 minutes per side versus 4 minutes per side) arrives after 1948 for songs made to be heard together, as well as being able to play classical works without interruptions. “By 1979, the United States was producing a higher volume of plastic than steel.” LP’s are compression-molded while CD’s are injection-molded then metallized, lacquered, and silkscreened. One study showed a smartphone streaming video one hour weekly for a year uses more energy than a refrigerator does left one in a full year. Each iPhone is made by going through 75 pounds of rock in backbreaking work to get the 100 grams of materials needed. Spotify and Pandora do not pass Greenpeace’s tests of commitment. And so, online music streaming “amounts to at least 5 percent of global electricity consumption.” Downloading one gig of data is the energy cost of running a 60-watt bulb for one hour. An album is about one tenth of a gigabyte so the real energy damage is collectively people downloading billions of albums. Yes, people are using less plastic by not using CD’s but apparently the environmental costs have doubled, because streaming one’s music doubles the CO2 emissions over just owning CD’s or doing a simple one-time download. Reading that made me glad I still haven’t used Spotify or Pandora and instead listen to CD’s, 320 bit mp3s, or one-time downloads. Live music is one of music’s biggest revenue streams yet publically undiscussed is that music touring is a big energy hog where everyone in the audience is driving to one location for a very short visit, and constantly moving heavy lighting and PA equipment takes its energy toll. The author wants us to look behind the screens and see the political ecology of music: “petro-capitalism, polymer chemistry, forestry and factories, war and waste, gendered labor and geological laceration.”

I own a recording studio so I wanted to better understand all the green vs non-green aspects of the music business and this book was very helpful, but could have been better if it would have included: That records tend to arrive in more eco-benign packaging than CDs: cardboard sleeves, as opposed to bulky, petroleum-based polystyrene cases. Or that according to a recent analysis by a U.K. organization dedicated to reducing the British music industry’s carbon footprint, cardboard sleeves produce only 1 percent as many greenhouse gas emissions as similarly-sized jewel cases? On the other hand, an LP is about twice as heavy as a packaged CD, which translates into higher fuel usage for transportation. Why not mention that records are made out polyvinyl chloride? PVC being a plastic nightmare among environmentalists, because of concerns about dangerous emissions during its production and—if burned—its disposal. Why not mention the ecological/energy cost of tape manufacture (cassette, 8 Track, 2” reels, etc.)? Why not tell the story about the demise of the CD blister pack? Or musical LaserDisc? Or the energy cost difference between making tubes and transistors? Or discuss the very interesting history of making great tubes, transistors, amplification, speakers, and tape (including Bing Crosby’s cool role)? Which takes more energy to make – a LP with art and sleeve, or a CD with jewel box and artwork? What was the construction difference between regular LP’s and though see-through colored novelty ones? Many things come to mind that would have made this book more interesting and complete.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read in music studies that I'm glad to have revisited. Devine expands the political economy of music to ecology to take into account the environmental costs of musical materials. There are three body chapters organized around the main materials of the last century of music: shellac, plastic, and data. I'm teaching this text to my undergrads and they seem to be profoundly moved by it, even though there's a fundamental tension that it's not really about the "music" per se. And that's the point. It won't be a hard sell for music scholars committed to looking well beyond music as art, but for those more committed to textual criticism and studies oriented around major musicians and composers, this might be a harder sell. I still think we should all read it. The only reason why it's not five stars –– and I know this is totally nit-picking –– is about minor issues like overlong footnotes and an afterword that might come across as shadow boxing to some. Really, not big deals when it comes down to it. I really liked it.

[Cana McGhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy read, if not also a depressing awakening to the music industry's history of environmental damage.

[Andy Janes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably should have been four stars, but it was more scholarly than I wanted it to be as well as more depressing. I know it's important for us to know all this stuff if we want to make changes, and it addresses things that are rarely discussed, but I always hope for some solutions or suggestions.

But overall, it's an important discussion for musicians and fans of music that isn't happening very much yet. Hope more people read it.

[K. Goldschmitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Materialist musicology meets political ecology with recorded media at the center. My favorite chapter was the one on shellac, but they are all incredibly illuminating.