THE ENDLESS REFRAIN
Memory, Nostaligia, and the Threat to New Music
In The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music, Rowell argues that our unrelenting devotion to music’s past has increasingly left us wanting only the music we already know – and explores the consequences for what this means for the future of music.
In this raucous, wide-ranging exploration, Rowell lays out how commercial and cultural forces have increasingly exploited our emotional ties to music from earlier eras. He examines how the endless repetition of MTV’s heyday conditioned generations to be content with hearing the same old songs over and over – and how those songs have taken on a new life and often bizarre market stronghold, despite all the great new music made in this century.
Rowell interviews some of the most revered musicians today, music critics, industry insiders, devoted fans for their perspectives. He shadows a Florida Journey tribute band and goes behind the scenes with the creators of music holograms who are putting dead musicians back on the concert stage to understand why this is a viable concert experience in the 21st century.
Combining personal memoir, intimate and on-the-ground reporting, industry research, and cultural criticism, Rowell’s book is a powerful indictment of a music culture gone awry.