Volume 51, Number 8 · May 13, 2004
Disco Dreams
By Luc Sante
Songbook
by Nick Hornby
Riverhead, 207 pp., $13.00 (paper)
Sonata for Jukebox: Pop Music, Memory, and the Imagined Life
by Geoffrey O'Brien
Counterpoint, 328 pp., $27.50
Over the last twenty-five years the mix tape has become a paradigmatic form of popular expression. It is one part Victorian flower album, one part commonplace book, one part collage, and one part recital. The maker dubs onto cassette or burns onto CD a group of songs by other hands, the selection and sequence intended to compose a billet-doux, score a dance party, prove a point, or simply demonstrate the compiler's taste and expertise. It is a natural outcome of home-recording technology, and represents a back-porch, scaled-down amateur version of the highly competitive art of the DJ.
Review, 3333 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |