The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music

Rowell (Wherever the Sound Takes You: Heroics and Heartbreak in Music Making) asks a few notable rock stars, fledgling musicians, and music critics why many people listen to older music rather than explore newer sounds. In the first, most provocative section, he blames the limited playlists of Muzak’s successor Mood Media, the royalty-rate structure of the internet-streaming giant Spotify, and the greed of music publishers for the current dominance of slick MTV-promoted pop hits of the 1980s and 1990s in airports, supermarkets, and other venues. Rowell details the relatively recent explosion of cover bands, which deliver live, note-for-note renditions of hits originally performed by rockers such as Journey, Heart, and Metallica. He finally describes the new phenomenon of holographic rock, in which a live band plays behind usually deceased rock stars such as Tupac Shakur and Ronnie James Dio, who have been resurrected by the wonders of holographic technology.