For anyone in the field of popular music studies, the task of charting the history of even a single genre of music is a herculean task. In his newest monograph, Live Music in America, Steve Waksman advances a more formidable agenda. He documents the history of live music in America from Jenny Lind in the 1850s to contemporary destination music festivals. Waksman sets out to establish several important points. One is to instantiate the consequence of live music to produce a fuller, more accurate impression of music history. He demonstrates how live music performance has never been a second player but has often been treated that way because history favors the artifact. He also shows how music performance exposes tensions surrounding the inhabitancy of public space as industrialism has changed the American concert industry. Live Music in America is absolutely essential reading for those unfamiliar with the tangible functioning...

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