Music : a subversive history / Ted Gioia.

Originally published in hardcover by Basic Books in 2019

Introduction -- The origin of music as a force of creative destruction -- Carnivores at the Philharmonic -- In search of a universal music -- Music history as a battle between magic and mathematics -- Bulls and sex toys -- The storyteller -- The invention of the singer -- The shame of music -- Unmanly music -- The devil's songs -- Oppression and musical innovation -- Not all wizards carry wands -- The invention of the audience -- Musicians behaving badly -- The origins of the music business -- Culture wars -- Subversives in wigs -- You say you want a revolution? -- The great flip-flop -- The aesthetics of diaspora -- Black music and the great American lifestyle crisis -- Rebellion goes mainstream -- Funky butt -- The origins of country music in the neolithic era -- Where did our love go? -- The sacrificial ritual -- Rappers and technocrats -- Welcome our new overlords -- Epilogue: This is not a manifesto.

Gioia tells a 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how social outcasts have repeatedly become trailblazers of musical expression."Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs. Gioia tells a four-thousand-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how outcasts, immigrants, slaves, and others at the margins of society have repeatedly served as trailblazers of musical expression, reinventing our most cherished songs from ancient times all the way to the jazz, reggae, and hip-hop sounds of the current day. Music: A Subversive History is essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify." -- Publisher's description