Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Highs for Highbrows? How We Got from Head Music to Ambient Music

Chapter 1: Inside Environments's Psychedelic "Psychological Sound"

Chapter 2: Pacifica Radio's Music from the Hearts of Space and the Spacious Sound of California's New Age

Chapter 3: Brian Eno's Ambivalent Ambiences

Chapter 4: Ambient EDM, or Dance Music That Isn't Dance Music!

Coda

Bibliography

Selected Discography

Index

About the Author

Victor Szabo is Elliott Assistant Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College. His work broadly addresses the socioaesthetics of 20th and 21st century popular and electronic music, with special focus on queer and countercultural topics, as well as on the cultural politics of taste, emotion, and mood. He is also a DJ, film buff, and cocktail enthusiast.

Reviews

With flair and acumen, Victor Szabo delves deep into the aesthetics, phenomenology, and politics of ambient music. The result is a comprehensive and fascinating study of a musical genre that's been hailed as ignorable yet interesting.
*Rita Felski, author of Hooked: Art and Attachment*

Ambient as a genre is often seen as an invention of Brian Eno, starting with his 1975 album 'Discreet Music,'...Eno's incredibly important role in this genre, an influence that continues to this day.
*Ben Taffijn, Nieuwe Noten*