Making Value

"Providing the first systematic account of music from the perspective of a theorization of value, Timothy D. Taylor draws on a deep knowledge of North American music industries, world musics, and independent music scenes to show how value accrues to musical commodities as they move among complex scenes of exchange. By centering a theorization of value, Making Value's contribution lies in its offering of an alternative to critical thinking about music in contemporary capitalism, deriving from studies of the culture industries and Adornian critique." -- Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music, King's College London
"Examining how the capitalist processes of valorization, commodification, and accumulation interact with the social and cultural practices that produce and profit from musical performances and recordings, Making Value will prove enlightening to academics and students working across ethnomusicology and popular music studies as well as cultural, media, and communication studies. Its erudition, succinct chapters, discrete case studies, and familiar theoretical reference points make this important book highly teachable in the classroom." -- Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, University of East London