Book Review: The Endless Refrain

In The Endless Refrain, former Washington Post writer and editor David Rowell lays out how commercial and cultural forces have laid waste to the cultural ecosystems that have produced decades of great American music. From the scorched-earth demonetizing of artist revenue accomplished by Spotify and its ilk to the rise of dead artists “touring” via hologram, Rowell examines how a perfect storm of conditions have drained our shared musical landscape of vitality.

Combining personal memoir, intimate on-the-ground reporting, industry research, and cultural criticism, Rowell’s book is a powerful indictment of a music culture gone awry, driven by conformity and subverted by the ways the internet and media influence what we listen to and how we listen to it.

The Endless Refrain: Memory, Nostalgia, and the Threat to New Music will be published November 12, 2024. Melville House Publishing provided an early galley for review.

I am very much a music junkie. My personal digital library has tens of thousands of tracks in it. I very much enjoy variety.

Yet, as Rowell discusses in his book, I often tend to gravitate towards certain eras of music. I'll spend a good block of time on a specific music decade (both in my playlist listens and in the car via satellite radio). The familiar is comforting and connected to memories of the past.

On the other hand, I do my best to try to stay current with new music as well. As collection developer for my library branches' adult CDs, it is important that I am up on newer artists and releases to best serve my patron base. Occasionally I will discover new artists that I enjoy and will want to add to my music mix. But, as Rowell points out, those tend to not get as exhaustive of listens like I did with albums back in the day.

The book itself has three major sections, bookended by an introduction and conclusion. While I might have preferred that the meat of the discussion to have been broken up into smaller subchapters, I understand why the author went with the approach he did. Like albums of old, this is meant to be consumed fully as an entity rather than parts that could be jumped around or skipped. Since I tend to listen to my music as album plays, I respect that choice.

In the end, this is not a book for answers but instead to leave the reader with questions about how and why we consume the music that we do.