Sounds of the Metropolis
The 19th Century Popular Music Revolution in London, New York, Paris and Vienna
Derek B. Scott
Reviews and Awards
"In the field of popular music studies, the nineteenth century hasn't received nearly the attention it deserves. Derek Scott's book has the potential to change that. For anyone who wants to know more about why and how popular music developed-not just the economic and social reasons but also the musical ones, Sounds of the Metropolis will prove an eye-opening read." --Michael V. Pisani, author of Imagining Native America in Music
"This is the first book to show just when and where the music-making we call 'popular music' first appeared internationally. Professor Scott surveys the music business and moral issues over popular songs with a suave sophistication, and then looks deeper into blackface minstrels, music-hall Cockneys, and Montmartre cabarets. Scholars in many fields will find this history invaluable."--William Weber, Professor of History, California State University, Long Beach
"Popular music studies by in large come to the subject's history in medias res. Derek Scott takes a longer look, back to the future of the nineteenth century and the urban vernaculars of London music hall, New York minstrelsy (and its European reception), Parisian cabaret, and Viennese social dancing. Scott hears the sounds, and he puts them into dialogue with the cultural, economic, ideological, and aesthetic systems of their time--and ours--with characteristic thoroughness and brilliance. By no means least, he has a good story to tell, which he narrates at once gracefully and compellingly."--Richard Leppert, Samuel Russell Distinguished Professor of Humanities, University of Minnesota
"Scott's book offers a treasure trove of valuable information...A worthy addition to the academic literature on the history of popular music." --Popular Music and Society
"Packed with historical information, much of it unexpected...all of it interesting." --Music & Letters
"An obviously important work that historians of the 19th century should examine closely to understand the critical connection between popular music and the social shifts of modernity." --Journal of Social History
"An important work that historians of the 19th century should examine closely to understand the critical connection between popular music and the social shifts of modernity." --Journal of Social History
