Sterne, Jonathan (Author)
MP3: The Meaning of a Format recounts the hundred-year history of the world's most common format for recorded audio. Understanding the historical meaning of the MP3 format entails rethinking the place of digital technologies in the larger universe of twentieth-century communication history, from hearing research conducted by the telephone industry in the 1910s, through the mid-century development of perceptual coding (the technology underlying the MP3), to the format's promiscuous social life since the mid 1990s. MP3s are products of compression, a process that removes sounds unlikely to be heard from recordings. Although media history is often characterized as a progression toward greater definition, fidelity, and truthfulness, MP3: The Meaning of a Format illuminates the crucial role of compression in the development of modern media and sound culture. Taking the history of compression as his point of departure, Jonathan Sterne investigates the relationships among sound, silence, sense, and noise; the commodity status of recorded sound and the economic role of piracy; and the importance of standards in the governance of our emerging media culture. He demonstrates that formats, standards, and infrastructures---and the need for content to fit inside them---are every bit as central to communication as the boxes we call "media."
...MoreReview Yates, JoAnne (2013) Review of "MP3: The Meaning of a Format". Business History Review (p. 564).
Review Beekman, Scott (2013) Review of "MP3: The Meaning of a Format". Journal of American Culture (p. 384).
Essay Review Bijsterveld, Karin (2014) Format Theory or Revitalizing Science and Technology Studies. Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 539-542).
Article
Stefan Krebs;
(2017)
The Failure of Binaural Stereo: German Sound Engineers and the Introduction of Artificial Head Microphones
(/isis/citation/CBB007112913/)
Article
Sterne, Jonathan;
(2006)
The MP3 as cultural artifact
(/isis/citation/CBB001181381/)
Book
Miller, Paul D.;
(2008)
Sound unbound: Sampling digital music and culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001181299/)
Book
Young, Rob;
(2002)
Undercurrents: The hidden wiring of modern music
(/isis/citation/CBB001181407/)
Book
O'Hara, Kenton;
Brown, Barry;
(2006)
Consuming music together: Social and collaborative aspects of music consumption technologies
(/isis/citation/CBB001181311/)
Book
Horning, Susan Schmidt;
(2013)
Chasing Sound: Technology, Culture, and the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP
(/isis/citation/CBB001213164/)
Thesis
Sayers, Jentery;
(2011)
How Text Lost Its Source: Magnetic Recording Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB001567268/)
Book
Bijsterveld, Karin;
Dijck, José van;
(2009)
Sound souvenirs: Audio technologies, memory and cultural practices
(/isis/citation/CBB001180422/)
Chapter
Sean Williams;
(2016)
Tubby’s Dub Style: The Live Art of Record Production
(/isis/citation/CBB358687756/)
Chapter
Paul Théberge;
(2016)
The End of the World as We Know It: The Changing Role of the Studio in the Age of the Internet
(/isis/citation/CBB210136963/)
Chapter
Jan Fairley;
Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier;
(2016)
Recording the Revolution: 50 Years of Music Studios in Revolutionary Cuba
(/isis/citation/CBB020201172/)
Chapter
(2016)
Interlude 1: Comments and Commentaries by Industry Professionals and Producers
(/isis/citation/CBB513788686/)
Chapter
Susan Schmidt Horning;
(2016)
The Sounds of Space: Studio as Instrument in the Era of High Fidelity
(/isis/citation/CBB713009477/)
Chapter
Jan Butler;
(2016)
The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and the Musicology of Record Production
(/isis/citation/CBB772351228/)
Chapter
(2016)
Interlude 3: Comments and Commentaries by Industry Professionals and Producers
(/isis/citation/CBB615853546/)
Book
Simon Frith;
Simon Zagorski-Thomas;
(2016)
The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field
(/isis/citation/CBB558340383/)
Chapter
Alan Williams;
(2016)
‘I’m Not Hearing What You’re Hearing’: The Conflict and Connection of Headphone Mixes and Multiple Audioscapes
(/isis/citation/CBB107237439/)
Chapter
Allan Moore;
(2016)
Beyond a Musicology of Production
(/isis/citation/CBB142923970/)
Article
Rubery, Matthew;
(2013)
Canned Literature: The Book after Edison
(/isis/citation/CBB001201826/)
Chapter
Simon Zagorski-Thomas;
(2016)
The US vs the UK Sound: Meaning in Music Production in the 1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB630134209/)
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