Given the near impossibility of separating discussions of popular music trends from the digital environments that increasingly shape them, it is hard to approach music and virtuality from a fresh perspective. With her first single-authored book Virtual Music: Sound, Music and Image in the Digital Era, Shara Rambarran offers a unique contribution to these conversations. In this highly readable monograph, Rambarran illustrates how popular music technologies are shaped by cultural and industrial forces through a wide variety of case studies, from video game soundtracks to gender-bending disco icon Grace Jones. Throughout the book, Rambarran takes a particular interest in “why, when we hear and view music, there are aspects of the creation in which we are reminded of the past” and how musical consumption can create a “futuristic experience” through listeners’ engagement with digital technology (6).

Virtual Music’s opening chapter provides a historical overview of the technologies that...

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