My Music, My War: The Listening Habits of U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (Music culture) - Tapa blanda

"[A]n important, even indispensable, study that resists broad mischaracterizations about U.S. troops at war."--Jonathan Pieslak, Volume! "My Music, My War is a wonderful addition to the scholarship on military folklore that Lisa Gilman and others have pursued since Bruce Jackson's 1989 JAF special issue (vol. 102, no. 406) on Vietnam, a war that received considerable resistance both at home and on the battlefield. ... This book is a testament to the hard work of a diligent folklorist who accomplished much in helping those veterans she interviewed, as well as those who are still struggling with PTSD."--Richard Allen Burns, Journal of American Folklore

In the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, recent technological developments in music listening enabled troops to carry with them vast amounts of music and easily acquire new music, for themselves and to share with their fellow troops as well as friends and loved ones far away. This ethnographic study examines U.S. troops' musical-listening habits during and after war, and the accompanying fear, domination, violence, isolation, pain, and loss that troops experienced. My Music, My War is a moving ethnographic account of what war was like for those most intimately involved. It shows how individuals survive in the messy webs of conflicting thoughts and emotions that are intricately part of the moment-to-moment and day-to-day phenomenon of war, and the pervasive memories in its aftermath. It gives fresh insight into musical listening as it relates to social dynamics, gender, community formation, memory, trauma, and politics.