Mark Pedelty: Ecomusicology

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#CC0000" alink="#CC0000"><center><hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade>How popular music reflects the dreams and contradictions of communities searching for more sustainable ways to live<hr width="350" size="1" align="center" noshade><p><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781439907115&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><img src="2160_reg.gif" height=200 border=1 vspace=4></p></center><h1>Ecomusicology</h1> <H2>Rock, Folk, and the Environment</H2> <h3>Mark Pedelty</h3> <P>cloth 1-4399-0711-0 $85.50, Jun 12, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <br>paper 1-4399-0712-9 $30.95, Jun 12, <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <br>Electronic Book 1-4399-0713-7 $30.95 <FONT COLOR=#990033>Available</FONT> <BR> 242 pp 6x9 7 halftones </P><BLOCKQUOTE><I>"There�s no book quite like </I>Ecomusicology<I>. I�m intrigued by all the strands Pedelty weaves together�about the environment in musicians� work, personal life, and activism�and especially his point that local culture is better than big star culture. Pedelty argues beyond the common ethnomusicologists� notion that any world musician who gets too successful is selling out, and insists that music should be local, immediate, small scale, part of some future tribal society if it is to be truly sustainable."</I><br>&#151<b>David Rothenberg</b>, Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and author of <I>Why Birds Sing</i> and <I>Thousand Mile Song</I></I></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Can musicians really make the world more sustainable? Anthropologist Mark Pedelty, joined an eco-oriented band, the Hypoxic Punks, to find out. In his timely and exciting book, <i>Ecomusicology</i>, Pedelty explores the political ecology of rock, from local bands to global superstars. He examines the climate change controversies of U2's 360 Degrees stadium tour—deemed excessive by some—and the struggles of local folk singers who perform songs about the environment. In the process, he raises serious questions about the environmental effects and meanings of music. <P><i>Ecomusicology</i> examines the global, national, regional, and historical contexts in which environmental pop is performed. Pedelty reveals the ecological potentials and pitfalls of contemporary popular music, in part through ethnographic fieldwork among performers, audiences, and activists. Ultimately, he explains how popular music dramatically reflects both the contradictions and dreams of communities searching for sustainability. <BR> <h2>Excerpt</h2><P>Excerpt available at <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress">www.temple.edu/tempress</a></p> <BR> <h2>Reviews</h2> <p><I>"Pedelty asks many difficult questions about the fundamental relationships between the crisis of environmental sustainability and the acts of musical creation, production, and experience in </I>Ecomusicology<I>. While he takes appropriately skeptical and tentative steps in problematizing many of these questions and their attendant assumptions, he boldly answers some as well. Pedelty offers instructive cases and a profound vision for ecomusicology that will appeal to musicians, scholars, students, and interested readers from disparate fields of music, history, anthropology, and environmental studies."</I> <br>&#151<b>Aaron S. Allen</b>, Assistant Professor of Musicology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Co-Founder and Chair of the Ecomusicology Special Interest Group of the Society for Ethnomusicology <p><i>"In this elegantly argued book, Pedelty...probes deeply the relationship between music, especially rock and folk, and the environment.... [T]he great value of Pedelty's book is that... [t]rue to his field work roots, Pedelty himself straps on a guitar in order to make music and to participate in a local music scene.... Pedelty urges us to get up off our chairs and dance, sing, clap, dig, vote, and record as we move from being passive recipients of music to being active creators of the soundscape of our lives."</i> <br>&#151<b><i>The Journal of Ecocriticism</i></b> <p><i>"Mark Pedelty's engaging and readable </i>Ecomusicology<i> brings attention to an insufficiently explored subject.... Pedelty's 'search for sustainable music'... centers not so much on lyrics, but on the environmental implications of musical production and performance�a standard by which most popular rock bands on world tours fail miserably.... His personal experience gives insights on both songwriting strategies and the challenges of trying to save the world while also trying to get people to listen in a crowded bar.... Pedelty points the way toward a harmonious reconciliation of music-making and ecocriticism."</i> <br>&#151<b><i>ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment</i></b> <p><i>"</i>Ecomusicology<i> is among the first large-scale works to merge the discourse of environmental justice and ecocriticism with an analysis of the social experience of music... [It] is a welcome addition to the literature that illustrates a plethora of potential approaches to musical ecocriticism. Pedelty�s book opens up new interpretive possibilities for the ongoing study of the relationship between music and the environment."</I> <br>&#151<b><I>Environmental Values</I></b> <p><i>"Pedelty asks the question of how music can be used to promote sustainability. He takes us through the political ecology of rock, using examples in a geographic exposition from global (Live Aid megaconcerts), national (political music in USA), regional (bioregions in North America) to local music. Taking an ethnographic approach, Pedelty interfaces these geographical components with an analysis of music as communication, advocacy and to a lesser degree as art. Reflecting on the relationship between musical genre and environmentalism, Pedelty's ecomusicology emerges throughout the book."</I> <br>&#151<b><I>Social Anthropology</I></b> <p><i>"Mark Pedelty�s </i>Ecomusicology<i> is a project of personal passion, and this passion is evident on every single page. Pedelty�s scope is not limited to a single case study, approach, or even discipline. Rather, the book is a winding, at times eclectic, journey for both author and reader that tackles Pedelty�s diverse experiences in and at the intersections of musicology and environment, musicianship and ecological practice.... Yet even as Pedelty shifts between mass market musicians like U2, Jack Johnson, and Soundgarden and his own experiences as a fledgling local musician, </i>Ecomusicology<i> never loses sight of its central goal: to trace, through observation and participation, music�s impact on cultural ecologies and material ecosystems.... Pedelty�s work marks an important contemporary turn in folkloristic research."</I> <br>&#151<b><I>Journal of American Folklore</I></b> <BR> <h2>Contents</h2><P> <p>Acknowledgments <br>Introduction <br>1. Pop Goes the Planet: Global Music and the Environmental Crisis <br>2. The Musical Nation: Popular Music and the American Soundscape <br>3. Regional Geography in Song: Music Makes Place <br>4. Local Music: A Tonic for the Troops? <br>Conclusion <br>References <br>Permissions <br>Index </P><BR> <H2>About the Author(s)</H2> <P><b>Mark Pedelty</b> is Associate Professor of Mass Communication and Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. To learn more about this book and its music, visit his website, <a href="http://web.me.com/pedelty/Ecomusicology/Home.html" target="new">Ecomusicology.net</a></P> <BR><H2>Subject Categories</H2> <p><A HREF="/tempress/music.html" TARGET="_top">Music and Dance</a> <BR><A HREF="/tempress/nature.html" TARGET="_top">Nature and the Environment</a> <BR><A HREF="/tempress/anthropology.html" TARGET="_top">Anthropology</a> </p> <p align="center"><a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/ChicagoBook.aspx?ISBN=9781439907115&&PRESS=temple" target="_top">Buy this book!</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">View Cart</a> | <a href="https://cdcshoppingcart.uchicago.edu/Cart/Cart.aspx?PRESS=temple" target="_top">Check Out</a></p><p><font face="Arial" size="1"><a href="copyright.html" onMouseOver="window.status='Web Copyright Policy';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Web Copyright Policy">©</a> 2015 <a href="http://www.temple.edu" target="new" onMouseOver="window.status='Link to Temple University home page';return true;" onMouseOut="window.status=''" title="Link to Temple University home page">Temple University</a>. 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