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Vinyl Theory
Jeffrey R. Di Leo
Open Access
Why are vinyl records making a comeback? How is their resurgence connected to the political economy of music? Vinyl Theory responds to these and other questions by exploring the intersection of vinyl records with critical theory. In the process, it asks how the political economy of music might be connected with the philosophy of the record. The young critical theorist and composer Theodor Adorno’s work on the philosophy of the record and the political economy of music of the contemporary French public intellectual, Jacques Attali, are brought together with the work of other theorists to in order to understand the fall and resurrection of vinyl records. The major argument of Vinyl Theory is that the very existence of vinyl records may be central to understanding the resiliency of neoliberalism. This argument is made by examining the work of Adorno, Attali, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others on music through the lens of Michel Foucault’s biopolitics.
Reviews
"The disarming innocence of Di Leo's memoir-esque reflections allow readers to feel the material conditions under which music is recorded, stored, distributed, and played. . . The book is a tightly syncopated composition that develops an answer to the puzzle of why vinyl is making a commercial come-back."
– The Comparatist
About the author
Jeffrey R. Di Leo is a Professor of English and Philosophy at the University of Houston-Victoria.
Citable Link
Published: 2020
Publisher: Lever Press
Copyright: 2020
- 978-1-64315-016-1 (open access)
- 978-1-64315-015-4 (paper)