The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival (PDF)

Revival movements aim to revitalize traditions perceived as threatened or moribund by adapting them to new temporal, spatial, and social contexts. While many of these movements have been well-documented in Western Europe and North America,those occurring and recurring elsewhere in the world have received little or no attention. Particularly under-analyzed are the aftermaths of revivals: the new infrastructures, musical styles, performance practices, subcultural communities, and value systems that grow out of these movements.

The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival fills this gap, and helps us achieve a deeper understanding of how and why musical pasts are reimagined and transfigured in modern-day postindustrial, postcolonial, and postwar contexts. The book's thirty chapters present innovative theoretical perspectives illustrated through new ethnographic case studies on diverse music and dance cultures around the world. Together these essays reveal the potency of acts of revival, resurgence, restoration, and renewal in shaping musical landscapes and transforming social experience. The book makes a powerful argument for the untapped potential of revival as a productive analytical tool in contemporary, global contexts. With its detailed treatment of authenticity, recontextualization, transmission, institutionalization, globalization, the significance of history, and other key concerns, the collection engages with critical issues far beyond the field of revival studies and is crucial for understanding contemporary manifestations of folk, traditional, and heritage music in today's postmodern cosmopolitan societies.