Acknowledgments  ix

Introduction. Hearing Empire—Imperial Listening / Ronald Radano and Tejumola Olaniyan  1

Part I. Technologies of Circulation

1. Decolonizing the Ear: The Transcolonial Reverberations of Vernacular Phonograph Music / Michael Denning  25

2. Smoking Hot: Cigarettes, Jazz, and the Production of Global Imaginaries in Interwar Shanghai / Nan Enstad  45

3. Circuit Listening: Grace Chang and the Dawn of the Chinese 1960s / Andrew F. Jones  66

Part II. Audible Displacements

4. The Aesthetics of Allá: Listening Like a Sonidero / Josh Kun  95

5. Sound Legacy: Elsie Houston / Micol Seigel  116

6. Imperial Aurality: Jazz, the Archive, and U.S. Empire / Jairo Moreno  135

7. Where They Came From: Reracializing Music in the Empire of Silence / Philip V. Bohlman  161

Part III. Cultural Policies and Politics in the Sound Market

8. Di Eagle and di Bear: Who Gets to Tell the Story of the Cold War? / Penny Von Eschen  187

9. Currents of Revolutionary Confluence: A View from Cuba's Hip Hop Festival / Marc Perry  209

10. Tango as Intangible Cultural Heritage: Development, Diversity, and the Values of Music in Buenos Aires / Morgan James Luker  225

11. Musical Economies of the Elusive Metropolis / Gavin Steingo  246

Part IV. Anticolonialism

12. The Sound of Anticolonialism / Brent Hayes Edwards  269

13. Rap, Race, Revolution: Post-9/11 Brown and a Hip Hop Critique of Empire / Nitasha Sharma  292

14. Echo and Anthem: Representing Sound, Music, and Difference in Two Colonial Modern Novels / Amanda Weidman  314

15. Tonality as a Colonizing Force in Africa / Kofi Agawu  334

Discography  357

Bibliography  361

Contributors  391

Index  397

Kofi Agawu

Philip Bohlman

Michael Denning

Brent Hayes Edwards

Nan Enstad

Andrew F. Jones

Morgan James Luker

Jairo Moreno

Marc D. Perry

Micol Seigel

Nitasha Tamar Sharma

Gavin Steingo

Penny Von Eschen

Amanda J. Weidman

"'Empire,' for most of these authors, is not restrained to political empires. Instead, it entails a broad understanding of declining national sovereignty, modern capitalism, and multinational enterprises, all reflected by and in sound. That gaze alone makes this a dynamic and interesting book for historians to consult." — Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Canadian Journal of History

"Audible Empire is a project admirably conceived and executed, consistent in its compelling, well-written, and timely scholarship." — Ruth E. Rosenberg, Notes

"Audible Empire is a topical book that presents in-depth case studies which, when read alongside each other, allow for comprehensive explanations on the role of music in the context of empire." — Christin Hoene, Social History

"Audible Empire . . . offers a complex, far-reaching, and sophisticated set of perspectives for considering various constructions of empire and a wide range of sonic acts that have been and continue to be interconnected." — Sindhumathi Revuluri, Music and Letters

"Are these varied works of scholarship meant to critique global politics, music, listening, and empire? Or are they intended to interrogate how the idea of critique operates in the context of those forces? Much of the power of this anthology lies in its refusal to resolve that question, and in fact to emphasize the many ambiguities that it brings to the surface." — Jonathan Schloss, Journal of Popular Music Studies

"The central drama of Audible Empire might be described as the divorce between the title words: an inevitably messy split followed later by the establishment of amicable relations. This very disconnection may prove the book’s signal contribution to musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, and postcolonial criticism at large. It points beyond a scholarly paradigm in which human perceptions are forever held in empire’s thrall: towards the not-always sensible domains across which empires unfold." — Gavin Williams, Twentieth Century Music

"'Empire,' for most of these authors, is not restrained to political empires. Instead, it entails a broad understanding of declining national sovereignty, modern capitalism, and multinational enterprises, all reflected by and in sound. That gaze alone makes this a dynamic and interesting book for historians to consult." —Jessica Gienow-Hecht, Canadian Journal of History

"Audible Empire is a project admirably conceived and executed, consistent in its compelling, well-written, and timely scholarship." —Ruth E. Rosenberg, Notes

"Audible Empire is a topical book that presents in-depth case studies which, when read alongside each other, allow for comprehensive explanations on the role of music in the context of empire." —Christin Hoene, Social History

"Audible Empire . . . offers a complex, far-reaching, and sophisticated set of perspectives for considering various constructions of empire and a wide range of sonic acts that have been and continue to be interconnected." —Sindhumathi Revuluri, Music and Letters

"Are these varied works of scholarship meant to critique global politics, music, listening, and empire? Or are they intended to interrogate how the idea of critique operates in the context of those forces? Much of the power of this anthology lies in its refusal to resolve that question, and in fact to emphasize the many ambiguities that it brings to the surface." —Jonathan Schloss, Journal of Popular Music Studies

"The central drama of Audible Empire might be described as the divorce between the title words: an inevitably messy split followed later by the establishment of amicable relations. This very disconnection may prove the book’s signal contribution to musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, and postcolonial criticism at large. It points beyond a scholarly paradigm in which human perceptions are forever held in empire’s thrall: towards the not-always sensible domains across which empires unfold." —Gavin Williams, Twentieth Century Music

"Audible Empire is an important, substantive, and significant volume containing essays that display a theoretical sophistication about an important range of musical, social, and political issues. In addressing the ways in which the production, distribution, and consumption of public music can illuminate the history of empire and other transnational practices, structures, and institutions, Audible Empire introduces new ways of thinking about music as a social force." — George Lipsitz, coauthor of, The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Co-Creation

"This significant volume does major intellectual and pedagogical work, helping to clarify just what Fanon meant by 'epistemological violence' and Foucault by the 'invisible but known' character of what has been left out of music scholarship. Containing terrifically original pieces of deep scholarship, Audible Empire promotes searching and expansive thinking that will advance critical musicology."
— Steven Feld, author of, Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra: Five Musical Years in Ghana

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