"Musical listening was pervasive for U.S. troops fighting the wars in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Recent technological developments enabled troops to carry with them vast amounts of music and easily acquire new music, for themselves and to share with others in their immediate vicinity and far away.…This study examines U.S. troops’ musical listening during and after war, yielding insight into what war was like for those most intimately involved and how individuals survive in the messy webs of conflicting thoughts and emotions that are so intricately part of the moment-to-moment and day-to-day phenomenon of war and the pervasive memories in its aftermath. Central themes that emerge throughout are relationships between musical listening and social dynamics (e.g. social and professional hierarchies, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and race), community formation, memory-making, trauma, and politics."

Wesleyan University Press, 240 pages