Every Song Ever: Twenty Ways to Listen in an Age of Musical Plenty

This product is featured on the Booko Blog
Cover Art for 9781846146862, TWENTY WAYS TO LISTEN TO MUSIC by Ben Ratliff
ASIN: B011I2MNRG
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 9 February, 2016
Format: Kindle eBook
Links Booko's Blog
Editions:
5 other editions of this product

For the first time in the history of music, we can listen to nearly anything, at any time. New technologies make it possible for us to roam across musical genres and generations, from Detroit techno to jam bands to baroque opera - or to drive deeper into the set of tastes that we already have. These new possibilities overturn old assumptions about what it means to properly appreciate music. In Every Song Ever , celebrated critic Ben Ratliff reimagines the very idea of music appreciation for our times. As familiar categories like 'rock' or 'jazz' matter less and less, listeners can put aside the intentions of musicians and engage with music afresh on their own terms, by experience rather than genre. If we listen for loudness, for instance, we can detect the surprising affinities between The Sex Pistols' 'Holidays in the Sun' and the dance music of David Guetta and Sia. And if we listen for closeness, we might notice how the tight harmonies of Lennon and McCartney in 'She Loves You' illuminate the synchrony of John Coltrane's quartet. Ratliff also goes in search of 'the perfect moment'; enters the psychological state of slow music as exemplified by DJ Screw, Sarah Vaughan and the final works of Shostakovich; considers what it means to hear emotion by sampling the complex sadness of Nick Drake; and examines why some people want to document and possess the entire performance history of the Grateful Dead. Encompassing the sounds of five continents and several centuries, Ratliff's book is an artful work of criticism, a lesson in open-mindedness and an invitation to experiment in our new world of sound.

Booko is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Shop Preferences

Customize which shops to display. You can include the following shops by logging in to change your settings.

Booko is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Historical Prices

Loading...
This graph is for informational purposes only. Occasionally pricing data is captured incorrectly, through bugs in Booko or the stores supplying data, which may distort the graph, providing undue hope that even lower prices sometimes appear.

Recently Updated