The Revolution Will Be Spotified is at once a massive and yet at times beautifully granular examination of music and its impact on culture, politics, identity, and economics, blending classic ethnomusicology, popular culture, and genre study with theories of rhetoric to produce a fascinating and very relevant discussion of a number of vital issues. The author has put together a masterful survey of intellectual trends and adroitly uses them to discuss the power of music as a mode of social resistance. Readers seeking to understand the almost mythical quality of music to change lives will find this analysis satisfying on many levels, including from an ontological perspective, a personal/political perspective, and a socio-technological perspective. It has the valued charm of being exceedingly well-written and thus easy to read, while also adding much to extant scholarly literature on these interesting topics. The book’s versatility of form and seamless writing flow alone would recommend it; but its timely and topical aspects – on politics, rhetoric, identity, and technology – make The Revolution Will Be Spotified one of the most compelling intellectual works of the season.

Gregory Selber, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley