What is American Music?

February 26, 2013 12:16 PM

Sound American: Issue #4, The What Is American Music? Issue of the web-based magazine Sound American examines American music in some of its rich diversity. The issue includes a fabulous "mixtape" put together by Ian Nagoski of Canary Records of music recorded to 78-rpm disc by immigrant communities in the US. (***see interior note)

There is also a great interview with Dick Spottswood about early 78 collecting, interviews with Josh Rosenthal of Tompkins Square Records and Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records. There is also a great video of a lecture by Nagoski about his collection To What Strange Place - The music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora, 1916-1929. Plus other great stuff, including a link to the first three issues of Sound American.

***Note: The anchors on the navigation header on the Sound American page appear to be seriously misaligned, at least in FF and Chrome, so you may need to hunt around for the links to what you want to read. They all seem to be there, however, and it's worth it.

posted by OmieWise (6 comments total)

A better question might be if you like it?
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:32 PM on February 26 [7 favorites]

This is incroyable. Mr. Spottswood is a national treasure, and Nagoski knows what and where to dig.
posted by issue #1 at 2:43 PM on February 26

I am totally digging the uncredited "Polka canadienne."

Some very quick googling tells me it was recorded in Montréal by Joseph Ovila LaMadeleine (which see), who was born in Valleyfield, Québec and died in Montréal never emigrated to the US. So, um, huh?
posted by Sys Rq at 2:59 PM on February 26

Kid Charlemagne - I like American Music.
posted by maryr at 7:45 PM on February 26

This might be the most depressing post I've ever made.
posted by OmieWise at 4:54 AM on February 27 [1 favorite]

Great post—I love anything that complicates the notion of "American" and of course I love great music, so this has been bookmarked for frequent reference. Many thanks.

> The anchors on the navigation header on the Sound American page appear to be seriously misaligned, at least in FF and Chrome, so you may need to hunt around for the links to what you want to read.

Just hover your cursor over the link and you can see what you're getting. But yeah, a mild annoyance they would do well to fix.

> This might be the most depressing post I've ever made.

Why? It seems pretty joyous to me! Here, this'll cheer you up: The Blasters, "American Music."
posted by languagehat at 7:05 AM on February 27