There is no book like this. Politically, theoretically, and sonically engaged, The Ringtone Dialectic takes something of seemingly minor significance—cell phone ringtones—and uses it to explore the structure and dynamics of global capitalism. Gopinath raises the bar in the study of the political economy of sound.
David Suisman, author of Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music
Why should we care about ringtones? As The Ringtone Dialectic makes clear, we have good reason to care. In this perceptive and provocative study, Sumanth Gopinath uses the ringtone to offer fresh perspectives on the creation and consumption of music, the evolution of digital technologies, and the global trade of information. Full of fascinating case studies and insightful analysis, The Ringtone Dialectic probes the profound and lasting consequences of the short-lived multi-billion-dollar industry built on 30-second clips of music.
Mark Katz, Chair, Department of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ
Sumanth Gopinath's The Ringtone Dialectic is a theoretically provocative and empirically rich study that should be read in music studies and far beyond.
Timothy D. Taylor, author of The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music, and the Conquest of Culture
The Ringtone Dialectic ambitiously—and successfully—brings our understanding of the circuit of culture, articulated through a brilliant analysis of ringtones, into the twenty-first century. If you want to understand the global workings of a multi-billion-dollar digital culture on the move, then read this book.
Michael Bull, University of Sussex
With a certain dry humour mixed with the arch tones of mild scholarly disdain, reading Gopinath on 'the degraded pre-adolescent utopias' of the Crazy Frog tune can be a little like reading Glenn Gould blithely discussing the 'harmonic primitivism' of the Beatles. Nonetheless, this unique and often fascinating volume unearths a sufficient number of intriguing artistic responses to suggest that there may have been more to the ringtone as cultural form than Für Elise rendered in coarse FM synthesis and dididing ding bing bing.
Art Review
...the most interesting parts of the book were those where Gopinath discusses the cultural aspects related to ringtones. Ringtones, Gopinath maintains, are aestheticized signals. Their function is to indicate, by means of sound, that the owner of the mobile phone is receiving a phone call. A simple beep would suffice to accomplish this task. Nevertheless, many phone user prefer to use another sound to indicate this, one that is aesthetically more pleasing. A Bach excerpt, for example.
Journal of Sonic Studies
