Sounds of Vacation

“Illuminating the ways that the sonic environment of inclusive resorts inform tourists' experiences of pleasure, postcolonial spaces, and colonial histories, Sounds of Vacation represents an exciting new approach to studying tourism, the politics of sound and listening, and the sonic and musical construction of space and fantasy.” - Colleen Ballerino Cohen, author of Take Me to My Paradise: Tourism and Nationalism in the British Virgin Islands

“Sounds of Vacation takes Caribbean music studies, and music and tourism studies more broadly, to the next level. Jocelyne Guilbault and Timothy Rommen’s learned and comprehensive introduction paves the way for fresh and compelling case studies by leading scholars from a variety of fields who show us how vacations work in a world increasingly disfigured by neoliberal capitalism.” - Timothy D. Taylor, author of Music in the World: Selected Essays

“The book achieves its central goal of offering new perspectives on musical performances in the Caribbean region while also calling for further studies on the political economy of music within the tourism industry.… Sounds of Vacation presents a range of voices from scholars with a diversity of perspectives that will help the book speak to audiences interested in ethnomusicology, anthropology, and sound studies beyond the Caribbean.”

“Clearly, mass tourism has become ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean (and beyond), and ethnographers of sound and music should pay serious attention to the ways in which this phenomenon influences musico-cultural production—a project for which this book wonderfully lays the groundwork…. This trailblazing book provides many starting points for exciting research to come.” - Amalia C. Mora, MUSICultures

“This volume is a timely contribution to decentering ‘sound studies’ from the global North, and will be of interest to scholars of political economy, sound studies, tourism studies, ethnomusicology, Caribbean studies, anthropology, and sociology.” - Thomas G. Porcello, New West Indian Guide

“This volume makes a convincing case for the value of listening methodologies to provide insights into understanding the relationship between capital and cultural practises. I found this volume insightful, stimulating, and highly quotable.” - Carlo A. Cubero, Anthropos

“Sounds of Vacation is a broad-ranging volume with content of varying styles and with varying foci. Most of the chapters contain something from which scholars from multiple disciplines can draw.” - L. Kaifa Roland, Journal of Anthropological Research

“[Sounds of Vacation] has a lot to teach about tourism and its relationship(s) to profit and pleasure, listening and power, mobility and management, and innocence and absolution.... The book reads as curated conversation, rather than a final word, on the space of the all-inclusive resort.” - Jennifer Lynn Kelly, Transfers

“Sounds of Vacation is an important contribution to studies of Caribbean musics and sounds.... Through the focus on labor and economy in these all-inclusive hotels, the authors offer some excellent starting points for further studies.” - Ruth Hellier-Tinoco, Latin American Music Review

"Sounds of Vacation is a rigorous, clearly written, well-organized, and accessible volume that remains true to its objective to establish a political economy analytical framework for the study of soundscapes in all-inclusive tourism settings. It brings a fresh perspective to studying tourism destinations that have been analysed at length (such as the Bahamas or Barbados) alongside destinations that have received less scholarly attention (such as Sint Marteen). The volume will interest scholars in anthropology, critical tourism studies, ethnomusicology, communication studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, and sociology." - Carla Guerrón Montero, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute