Duke University Press Sounds of Vacation: Political Economies of Caribbean Tourism

The contributors to Sounds of Vacation examine the commodification of music and sound at popular vacation destinations throughout the Caribbean in order to tease out the relationships between political economy, hospitality, and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Drawing on case studies from Barbados, the Bahamas, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Lucia, the contributors point to the myriad ways live performances, programmed music, and the sonic environment heighten tourists' pleasurable vacation experience. They explore, among other topics, issues of authenticity in Bahamian music; efforts to give tourists in Barbados peace and quiet at a former site of colonial violence; and how resort soundscapes extend beyond music to encompass the speech accents of local residents. Through interviews with resort managers, musicians, and hospitality workers, the contributors also outline the social, political, and economic pressures and interests that affect musical labor and the social encounters of musical production. In so doing, they prompt a rethinking of how to account for music and sound's resonances in postcolonial spaces. Contributors. Jerome Camal, Steven Feld, Francio Guadeloupe, Jocelyne Guilbault, Jordi Halfman, Susan Harewood, Percy C. Hintzen, Timothy Rommen Review "Clearly, mass tourism has become ubiquitous throughout the Caribbean (and beyond), and ethnographers of sound and music should pay serious attention to the ways in which this phenomenon influences musico-cultural production--a project for which this book wonderfully lays the groundwork.... This trailblazing book provides many starting points for exciting research to come."--Amalia C. Mora "MUSICultures" (11/22/2020 12:00:00 AM) "The book achieves its central goal of offering new perspectives on musical performances in the Caribbean region while also calling for further studies on the political economy of music within the tourism industry.... Sounds of Vacation presents a range of voices from scholars with a diversity of perspectives that will help the book speak to audiences interested in ethnomusicology, anthropology, and sound studies beyond the Caribbean."--Jessica C. Hajek "Ethnomusicology Forum" (8/11/2020 12:00:00 AM) " Sounds of Vacation takes Caribbean music studies, and music and tourism studies more broadly, to the next level. Jocelyne Guilbault and Timothy Rommen's learned and comprehensive introduction paves the way for fresh and compelling case studies by leading scholars from a variety of fields who show us how vacations work in a world increasingly disfigured by neoliberal capitalism."--Timothy D. Taylor, author of "Music in the World: Selected Essays" "Illuminating the ways that the sonic environment of inclusive resorts inform tourists' experiences of pleasure, postcolonial spaces, and colonial histories, Sounds of Vacation represents an exciting new approach to studying tourism, the politics of sound and listening, and the sonic and musical construction of space and fantasy."--Colleen Ballerino Cohen, author of "Take Me to My Paradise: Tourism and Nationalism in the British Virgin Islands" Review “ Sounds of Vacation takes Caribbean music studies, and music and tourism studies more broadly, to the next level. Jocelyne Guilbault and Timothy Rommen’s learned and comprehensive introduction paves the way for fresh and compelling case studies by leading scholars from a variety of fields who show us how vacations work in a world increasingly disfigured by neoliberal capitalism.” Author: Timothy D. Taylor, author of Source: Music in the World: Selected Essays From the Author Jocelyne Guilbault is Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, and coauthor of Roy Cape: A Life on the Calypso and Soca Bandstand, also published by Duke University Press. Timothy Rommen is Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College and Professor of Music and Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania