Recording Culture

Christopher A. Scales is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at Michigan State University.

"Recording Culture is an exceptional contribution to knowledge about contemporary Native American cultural initiatives. Within studies of powwow music, it is unique in its focus on aspects of CD production and issues related to the commodification of Native culture. It also provides original insights into matters such as the subtleties of drum beats, the evolving distinctions between song forms, and the criteria for judging powwow music. Christopher A. Scales's experience as a producer, as well as an ethnomusicologist, is particularly significant, since the material that he analyzes is not easily accessible outside the recording studio."-Beverley Diamond, author of Native American Music in Eastern North America: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture "This is a fascinating study, at once deeply historical and thoroughly contemporary. Through his detailed exploration of the shifting ethics and aesthetics of powwow performance, Christopher A. Scales insightfully shows us how the powwow has always been a contemporary practice of identity negotiation."-David W. Samuels, author of Putting a Song on Top of It: Expression and Identity on the San Carlos Apache Reservation “While the book makes a clear contribution to the interdisciplinary field of indigenous studies, the work will also be of interest to scholars in cultural anthropology, folklore studies, and the author’s field of ethnomusicology. With this new title, Duke University Press continues its work of publishing important scholarship in Native American and indigenous studies that advances the field while consciously reaching beyond it to make accessible contributions of interest to scholars working outside its boundaries.” - Jason Baird Jackson (Anthropological Quarterly) “This is an important, far-ranging discussion that deepens our understanding of powwow music in new and important ways.” - Clide Ellis (Journal of American Studies) “Recording Culture will serve as an excellent resource for anyone who has never been to a powwow or who knows little about powwow dancing or music.” - Nicky Belle (ARSC Journal) “An ambitious book on an important and all- too- oft en underrepresented topic pertaining to the musicking of American Indians: the struggle over the control of representation via mechanically reproducible recordings.” - John Cline (American Indian Quarterly) “…A study that is both descriptive and theoretically sophisticated… Scales pulls off a remarkable study, one that every student of indigenous song traditions should read.” - Luke Eric Lassiter (Great Plains Quarterly) "This engaging book will be of interest to ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, non-specialists interested in powwow music and contemporary indigenous culture, and scholars in Native American and indigenous studies." - Kristina Jacobsen-Bia (Journal of Anthropological Research) “The book certainly has more interdisciplinary reach than is overtly written into it; those who work in performance studies and media studies will find much of interest, especially around issues related to the live and recorded production of music. Recording Culture is a welcome and significant contribution both to the study of Native and powwow music and performance, and to studies of the relationship between live and recorded musical expression.” - Thomas G. Porcello (Ethnomusicology Forum) “Christopher A. Scales’s Recording Culture is a groundbreaking book that seamlessly combines two research areas that have rarely been examined together and that few scholars have the capacity to write on: Aboriginal powwow music and the recording industry.” - Susan M. Taffe Reed (American Anthropologist) "Recording Culture and its accompanying CD are incomparable educational resources for the classroom.... Firmly grounded in ethnomusicological and community-based tradition, it is a flavorful description of the most widespread, colorful, living-breathing musical form known to indigenous peoples across Turtle Island." - T. Christopher Aplin (American Indian Culture and Research Journal) "Recording Culture is conceptually sophisticated in approach and ethnographically detailed in its content.... Recording Culture [is] a pivotal addition to the literature on the powwow, the most widespread and dynamic vehicle of indigenous expressive culture in native North America." - Grant Arndt (Ethnohistory) "All in all, this is a richly informative book, and one that lays the groundwork for what will hopefully be more studies documenting a particularly turbulent time in the music industry and the Native response of embracing technology and innovation." - Tara Browner (Ethnomusicology)

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1Part I. Northern Plains Powwow Culture 1. Powwow Practices: Competition and the Discourse of Tradition 272. Powwow Songs: Aesthetics and Performance Practice 633. Drum Groups and Singers 112Part II. The Mediation of Powwows 4. The Powwow Recording Industry in Western Canada: Race, Culture, and Commerce 1435. Powwow Music in the Studio: Mediation and Musical Fields 1876. Producing Powwow Music: The Aesthetics of Liveness 2127. Powwows "Live" and "Mediated" 241Coda. Recording Culture in the Twenty-First Century 268Appendix: Notes on the CD Tracks 282Notes 289References 311Index 323A photo gallery appears after page 140.