In each political movement, the question of how to disseminate information constantly arises. During the second half of the twentieth century, an often-unobserved method involved the vinyl record. In An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, Josh MacPhee highlights the span of political influence throughout vinyl's predominance by compiling record labels with a vast range of regional location, genre, and political affiliation. As MacPhee showcases, there are not distinct criteria signifying what a political record label consists of. Some labels appear to be sections of a political party that release vinyl copies of political music, while others are larger labels with a less political agenda but show solidarity by putting forth a record with a particular political focus. With the lines blurred, the Encyclopedia highlights thematic structures within record labels that span musical genre, cultures, and borders. From this, various relationships between politics and the vinyl record arise and call for potential areas of further study.
"Every entry opens a window onto a different story of creativity and resistance and I couldn't stop hopscotching around from page to page, each one sparking off vectors for further thought and exploration. A totally mind-blowing accomplishment."--Guy Picciotto, Fugazi An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels is a compendium of information about political music and radical cultural production. Focusing on vinyl records and the labels that released them, this groundbreaking book traces the parallel rise of social movements in the second half of the twentieth century and the vinyl record as the dominant form of music distribution. Just as the Civil Rights Movement leaps onto mainstream headlines in the early 1960s, the 33rpm "Long Player" and 45rpm single invade people's stereos. All the major Civil Rights organizations release vinyl records of speeches, movement songs, and field recordings--setting the pace for the intertwining of social movements and easily distributed sound recordings. This relationship continues through the end of the twentieth century, which marked both the end of apartheid in South Africa and the dominance of the vinyl format. From A-Disc (the record label of the Swedish Labor Movement) to Zulu Records (the label of free jazz pioneer Phil Choran), An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels is a co