Synopsis
The history of the vocoder: how popular music hijacked the Pentagon's speech scrambling weapon
The vocoder, invented by Bell Labs in 1928, once guarded phones from eavesdroppers during World War II; by the Vietnam War, it was repurposed as a voice-altering tool for musicians, and is now the ubiquitous voice of popular music.
In How to Wreck a Nice Beach—from a mis-hearing of the vocoder-rendered phrase “how to recognize speech”—music journalist Dave Tompkins traces the history of electronic voices from Nazi research labs to Stalin’s gulags, from the 1939 World’s Fair to Hiroshima, from artificial larynges to Auto-Tune.
We see the vocoder brush up against FDR, JFK, Stanley Kubrick, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Kraftwerk, the Cylons, Henry Kissinger, and Winston Churchill, who boomed, when vocoderized on V-E Day, “We must go off!” And now vocoder technology is a cell phone standard, allowing a digital replica of your voice to sound human.
From T-Mobile to T-Pain, How to Wreck a Nice Beach is a riveting saga of technology and culture, illuminating the work of some of music’s most provocative innovators.
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About the Author
Dave Tompkins, a former columnist for The Wire, writes frequently on about hip-hop and popular music. His work has appeared in Vibe, The Village Voice, Wax Poetics, and The Believer. Nearly a decade in the making, this is his first book.
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How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks
Seller: Upward Bound Books, VALRICO, FL, U.S.A.
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Condition: good. Gently used with light wear to the cover, corners, or spine. Pages are clean and free of writing or highlighting. Binding is tight and fully intact. Dust jacket included with hardcover books. Ships fast in a protective poly mailerâ"Monday through Friday, excluding weekends and holidays. Seller Inventory # UBV.1612190928.G
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How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks
Seller: Perpetual Books, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. In great shape, clean text, no stickers, tight bindingg. Seller Inventory # ABE-1756244198789
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How to wreck a nice beach : the vocoder from World War II to hip-hop : the machine speaks
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Stop Smiling Books ; Melville House, Chicago, 2011
ISBN 10: 1612190928
ISBN 13: 9781612190921
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Soft cover
Seller: Springhead Books, Rochester, United Kingdom
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Contents: Axis of eavesdroppers -- Nearly enough like that which game them birth -- Indestructible speech -- Vocoder Kommissar -- As it is, on Mars -- Color out of space -- The sacred thunder croak -- Interdiction -- Vietnam, verbot and clear -- Think he said her name was Voodoo-on-a-stick -- Cool, as long as nobody hears it -- Eat a planet and go on to the next one -- Decompression -- Epilogue: I was like -- Appendix. Future Beat Alliance ; Auto-tune : it's not the end of the world ; How to recognize a Peachtree freak : 80 songs with vocoder. 348 pages, ill. (some col.) ; 22 cm. Slight shelf wear to edges, no inscriptions, tight and square binding. Photographs available on request. All books dispatched same or next working day in robust packaging. Seller Inventory # 018705
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How to Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder from World War II to Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks
Seller: Book Alley, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
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paperback. Condition: Good. Good. Used with light corner wear; has pencil markings. Seller Inventory # mon0000708889