From the 1940s to the 1970s, the phonograph industry experienced phenomenal growth, both in sales and in cultural influence. Along with hugely popular music recordings, spoken word LPs served a multitude of functions and assumed an important place in the American home. In this book, Jacob Smith surveys a diverse range of spoken word genres—including readings of classic works of literature and drama, comedy albums, children’s records, home therapy kits, even erotica—to illuminate this often...
The negative environmental effects of media culture are not often acknowledged: the fuel required to keep huge server farms in operation, landfills full of high tech junk, and the extraction of rare minerals for devices reliant on them are just some of the hidden costs of the contemporary mediascape. <I>Eco-Sonic Media</I> brings an ecological critique to the history of sound media technologies in order to amplify the environmental undertones in sound studies and turn up the audio in...
