My Music

"Not surprisingly, people listen to music for many different reasons and in many different ways, but the authors express pleasant surpise at most respondents' keen interest and intelligence about popular music in general and the astonishing range of individuals' interests despite the narrowcasting principles of radio specifically and the media in general."—The Washington Post

"Whether they think [music is] occasional background, the meaning of life, or some unique amalgam of both, few of these informants pigeonhole neatly into one of those taste subcultures beloved of marketers, programmers, sociologists, and rock critics . . . With the most uncommitted users attesting to some degree of saturation, what comes through is how uncontrollably each bends music to his or her own semiconscious needs or well-conceived purposed."—Robert Christgau

"My Music captures the day-to-day and moment-to-moment experience of perfectly ordinary people. In revealing their keen interest in and their intelligence about popular music, it shows them to be the proper subject of musicology and cultural research."—Paul Buhle, editor of Popular Culture in America

"My Music presents a lively cross-section of lay commentary on music... The interviews are very rich, and not only for their musical content. There are miniature psychodramas, and some clouded glimpses into private lives... My Music is unique in its use of open-ended, more-or-less nondirective interviews, and its focus on the voices of ordinary people...I suspect it will prove especially useful in the classroom."—Postmodern Culture

"Not surprisingly, people listen to music for many different reasons and in many different ways, but the authors express pleasant surpise at most respondents' keen interest and intelligence about popular music in general and the astonishing range of individuals' interests despite the narrowcasting principles of radio specifically and the media in general."—The Washington Post

"The subjects here are the weirdest of the weird: ordinary people. The project interviewed people aged four to 83 on what music meant to them, using relatives, friends, ex-employees, and neighbors as questioners so that the answers wouldn't be the usual lies we tell about our tastes. It's staggering."—SF Weekly

"My Music captures the day-to-day and moment-to-moment experience of perfectly ordinary people. In revealing their keen interest in and their intelligence about popular music, it shows them to be the proper subject of musicology and cultural research."—Paul Buhle, editor of Popular Culture in America

"Whether they think [music is] occasional background, the meaning of life, or some unique amalgam of both, few of these informants pigeonhole neatly into one of those taste subcultures beloved of marketers, programmers, sociologists, and rock critics . . . With the most uncommitted users attesting to some degree of saturation, what comes through is how uncontrollably each bends music to his or her own semiconscious needs or well-conceived purposed." —Robert Christgau