{"product_id":"gear-isbn-9780262551854","title":"Gear","description":"\u003cb\u003eA critical examination of the twenty-first century fetishization of professional audio technologies, and how it led to a new social formation: gear cultures.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGear: mixing consoles, outboard effects processors, microphones. These are professional studio recording-related technological objects—the tools of the recording industry—yet their omnipresence in the broader music industries and prosumer markets transcends the entrenched pro audio engineer guild. In \u003ci\u003eGear: Cultures of Audio and Music Technologies\u003c\/i\u003e, authors Eliot Bates and Samantha Bennett ask: How does gear become gear? Why is it fetishized? And how is it even relevant in the predominantly digital twenty-first-century music technology landscape?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis multisited, multicountry, multiplatform, and multiscalar study focuses on gear in the present day. The authors trace the life of gear from its underlying materialities, components, and interfaces to its manufacturing processes, its staging in sites including trade shows and message fora, and its reception through (gear) canons, heritage, and obdurance. This book implements a meticulous multimode methodology drawing upon more than twenty-five firsthand long-form interviews with audio industry professionals—including gear designers, users, and publishers—as well as new findings drawn from multisited fieldwork, online discourse analysis, and visual ethnography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eGear\u003c\/i\u003e examines the present-day prevalence of gear and the existence of its surrounding passionate, competitive, and sometimes \u003ci\u003ebizarre\u003c\/i\u003e gear cultures.Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003ePart I: Gear Cultures\u003cbr\u003e1 Gear\u003cbr\u003e2 Fetishization\u003cbr\u003ePart II: Materializing Gear\u003cbr\u003e3 Extractivism\u003cbr\u003e4 Manufacturing\u003cbr\u003e5 Interface\u003cbr\u003ePart III: Staging Gear\u003cbr\u003e6 Event\u003cbr\u003e7 Print\u003cbr\u003e8 Online\u003cbr\u003ePart IV: Encountering Gear\u003cbr\u003e9 Agency\u003cbr\u003e10 Testing\u003cbr\u003e11 Organization\u003cbr\u003ePart V: Gear Attitudes\u003cbr\u003e12 Secrets\u003cbr\u003e13 Heritage\u003cbr\u003e14 Obdurance\u003cbr\u003e15 Conclusion\u003cbr\u003eGlossary\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eBibliography\u003cbr\u003eIndex“An impressive and timely collection of fifteen chapters that apply the concept of gear to the study of media technologies.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eH-Net Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“After reading this book, you will also question why you own any of the recording equipment you have. Instead, you'll hope for a future where recordists purchase what they actually need, and that we'll all give up the search for some old metal box The Beatles once ran a signal through.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—TapeOp Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“A smart and adventurous journey into the material and cultural forces that shape music today by two of the field’s most insightful critics, \u003ci\u003eGear\u003c\/i\u003e is a must-read for tinkerers and theorists alike.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kyle Devine, University of Winnipeg; author of \u003ci\u003eDecomposed\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This deep dive into the social and cultural meanings surrounding audio technologies reorients our thinking about gear as more than mere hardware that conveys sound. A fascinating read!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Susan Schmidt Horning, St. John’s University, New York; author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eChasing Sound\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Why do we fetishize high-end audio technology? Read \u003ci\u003eGear\u003c\/i\u003e to find out. Prepare to be surprised, unsettled, even alarmed by this brilliant, fascinating, myth-busting book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Mark Katz, author of \u003ci\u003eMusic and Technology: A Very Short Introduction\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCapturing Sound\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“A powerful contribution to feminist sound studies that amplifies new voices and methods, \u003ci\u003eGear\u003c\/i\u003e is a guide to the dismantling of ‘gear cultures’ and to envisioning more equitable sonic futures.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, aka SAMMUS, Producer and Professor of Music, Brown University\u003c\/b\u003eEliot Bates is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the CUNY Graduate Center. They have contributed as a performer, composer, and\/or recordist\/engineer to more than ninety albums produced in the US, UK, Turkey, and Italy, as well as several TV series and feature films.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSamantha Bennett is Chair of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and Professor of Music at the Australian National University. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eModern Records, Maverick Methods\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Peepshow\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eCritical Approaches to the Production of Music and Sound\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304938623205,"sku":"NP9780262551854","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262551854.jpg?v=1767727905","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/gear-isbn-9780262551854","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}