Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Suddenly, popular music resembles an alien landscape. The great common ground of 45s, LPs, and even compact discs is rapidly falling by the wayside to be replaced by binary bits of sound. In the 21st century, radical advances in music technology threaten to overshadow the music itself. Indeed, today the generations divide over how they listen to the music, not what kinds of music they enjoy.Playback is the first book to place the staggering history of sound reproduction within its larger social and cultural context. Concisely told via a narrative arc that begins with Edison's cylinder and ends with digital music, this is a history that we have all directly experienced in one way or another. From the Victrola to the 78 to the 45 to the 33 1/3 to the 8track to the cassette to the compact disc to MP3 and beyond (not to mention everyone from Thomas Edison to Enrico Caruso to Dick Clark to Grandmaster Flash to Napster CEO Shawn Fanning), the story of Playback is also the story of music, and the music business, in the 20th century.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. xiii)
• 1 Magic in a Tin Can (p. 1)
• 2 War on Canned Music (p. 29)
• 3 Low Road to High Fidelity (p. 51)
• 4 Ponytail Ribbons, Popsicles, and Peanut Brittle (p. 71)
• 5 Dreaming in Stereo (p. 93)
• 6 Last Dance (p. 115)
• 7 Adventures on Wheels of Steel (p. 135)
• 8 Sudden Death of the Record (p. 155)
• 9 Canned Music's Last Stand (p. 177)
• Select Bibliography (p. 209)
• Index (p. 223)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Coleman, a New York City-based journalist, chronicles the history of the recording industry from its inception to the present. In nine chronological chapters-each with a fanciful title, such as "Low Road to High Fidelity" and "Canned Music's Last Stand"-his expertise in the area of popular music shines through; classical music often gets short shrift. Overall, though, Coleman is remarkably thorough, and his sections on the various intrigues and battlegrounds of the music industry make for compelling reading. He wades fearlessly into the current quagmire of Internet file sharing, Napster, and Record Industry Association of America lawsuits, and this section, which forms the final chapter, is among the strongest. Coleman's prose is engaging, pleasantly irreverent, and never stuffily pedantic, even when he lengthily describes recording technology. The excellent bibliography, organized by chapter, is extensive and up-to-the-minute. The text, though, contains several redundancies, which suggests careless or hurried editing. Still, as a social and cultural history of 20th- and 21st-century America and its love affair with recorded sound, this slim volume may well be indispensable. Because of the rapidly changing technology, new editions every few years will no doubt be necessary. Recommended for general collections.-Larry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

This short and sweet historical overview of the connection between music, technology (primarily the "playback" function) and the "systematic marketing of recorded music" is the perfect gift for aging boomers who, like Coleman, were caught "completely unawares" by the Internet and related developments such as the MP3 file-sharing format and Napster, which brought MP3 file sharing to the world. Coleman, however, has the advantage of being a rock critic who brings a formidable range of knowledge about his subject. He is as comfortable writing about how pioneers such as Edison and Bell were "blind to the full significance" of their sonic inventions as he is about lesser-known luminaries such as Dr. Paul Goldmark, who invented the "microgroove" LP for CBS. He is also consistently excellent and authoritative on the myriad ways over the decades that the art of making music has shifted away from audio documentation and moved toward "aural creation." While his survey of '60s rock and radio trends will be familiar to any fan of pop music, it provides numerous interesting related observations, such as how the LP "stands as the most enduring cultural legacy bequeathed to baby boomers by their parents." The highlight of the book is its final section, a near-definitive review of recent trends in computer-based listening habits that persuasively argues that "the seductive allure of the MP3 format is all about selection and portability, not thievery and deceit." (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Coleman provides a concise history of recording and, especially, of the industry of recorded music. Recording technology and the business of producing and marketing "canned" music have been intertwined almost since Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. In some instances, e.g., when the compact disc appeared, new technology has spurred the music business in amazing ways. In others, like the continuing furor over the sharing of MP3 files, technology seems to have cut deeply into the bottom line. The author focuses strongly on the US; European innovation is given little attention (Valdemar Poulsen, the Dane who invented magnetic recording, is nowhere mentioned). Andre Millard's America on Record: A History of Recorded Sound (CH, Jan'96) covers some of the same territory in rather more detail, but it is now outdated since, when it appeared, burning CDs at home was almost unknown. The present volume, current, readable, and somewhat provocative in its predictions, is a fine successor to Millard. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. B. J. Murray formerly, University of Alabama

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Mark Coleman is a journalist who has written for Rolling Stone, Details, New York Newsday, the Village Voice, and Mojo, among other publications. He was a contributor to The Rolling Stone Album Guide and lives in New York City