Sounds American provides new perspectives on the relationship between nationalism and cultural production by examining how Americans grappled with musical diversity in the early national and antebellum eras. During this period a resounding call to create a distinctively American music culture emerged as a way to bind together the varied, changing, and uncertain components of the new nation. This played out with particular intensity in the lower Mississippi River valley, and New Orleans especially. Ann Ostendorf argues that this region, often considered an exception to the nation—with its distance from the center of power, its non-British colonial past, and its varied population—actually shared characteristics of many other places eventually incorporated into the country, thus making it a useful case study for the creation of American culture. Ostendorf conjures the territory’s phenomenally diverse “music ways” including grand operas and balls, performances by church choirs and militia bands, and itinerant violin instructors. Music was often associated with “foreigners,” in particular Germans, French, Irish, and Africans. For these outsiders, music helped preserve collective identity. But for critics concerned with developing a national culture, this multitude of influences presented a dilemma that led to an obsessive categorization of music with racial, ethnic, or national markers. Ultimately, the shared experience of categorizing difference and consuming this music became a unifying national phenomenon. Experiencing the unknown became a shared part of the American experience.

Forging new ideas about the relationship between race and sound, Furlonge explores how black artists--including well-known figures such as writers Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston, and singers Bettye LaVette and Aretha Franklin, among others--imagine listening. Drawing from a multimedia archive, Furlonge examines how many of the texts call on readers to "listen in print." In the process, she gives us a new way to read and interpret these canonical, aurally inflected texts, and demonstrates how listening allows us to engage with the sonic lives of difference as readers, thinkers, and citizens.

SOUNDS , a textbook of a plurality of American English sounds that leads the reader through the ABCs detailing placement and feel of lips, tongue, and teeth; amount of air flow through the mouth or nose to make each sound; and a description of how the sound should look in the specifically sized and shaped provided mirror. The text describes diphthongs, vowels, and sound changes, lip positioning, air flow/amount, and its path as it passes from the lungs through the mouth or nose to create the desired sound. The text includes sensory tests for you to determine the correctness of a sound. The book is being used in Italy and Thailand to teach American English and being used in various school districts in Southern California as an aide for linguistic teachers, speech pathologists, and therapists working with children with impediments, and ESL adults.

Throbbing disco beats boom at the club. Crowds move to the lively beat of dance pop hits. Fans scream and cheer for teen idols. These are the sounds of pop. After Elvis hit the scene in the 1950s, a distinct youth taste in popular music began to emerge. The sound of pop music has varied greatly in the decades since Elvis, ranging from rock to disco to boy bands to dance pop. But all pop music is defined by catchy melodies and a broad appeal to teens. Find out how it all began. Learn about MTV's role in shaping pop music. Discover the stories of bubblegum pop groups, family bands, dance-pop idols, and disco sensations. And read more about legends such as Paul Anka, Madonna, the Jackson Five, and Katy Perry.