The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music

(Paperback)

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A veteran music journalist illustrates how culture has recycled music from the past A veteran music journalist illustrates how culture has recycled music from the past In The Endless Refrain, former Washington Post writer and editor David Rowell goes deep into the psychology of the average listener - as well as the algorithms that function as today's tastemakers - to explore the devastating effects of technology run amok on musicians and fans alike. Making an incisive analysis of the economic and technological forces behind the rise of streaming services like Spotify and iTunes, Rowell examines how contemporary currents of music consumption and production shut the doors on the organic creation of new music and trapped us in a whirlpool of repetition and stale nostalgia. Combining personal memoir, interviews, industry research, and good old-fashioned critical passion, Rowell's book is a pungent indictment of a music culture gone awry, crippled by nostalgia and subverted by the sinister hive minds of the internet.

Author Bio

David Rowell worked as an editor and writer at the Washington Post for nearly 25 years. He has taught literary journalism at American University and is currently a senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. He lives just outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The Endless Refrain is his third book.