David M. Reinecke
Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Fellow in the Humanities
2008—2009 Forum on Change
David M. Reinecke
Science, Technology, and Society
Technostalgia: How Old Gear Lives on in New Music
Working from a series of interviews with musicians, dealers, and collectors over the past three semesters in collaboration with Professor Trevor Pinch (Cornell), this study explores the current major revival in vintage music equipment. For the past 20 years, vintage gear has become a much sought after commodity, fetching extraordinary prices on the second-hand market. Jumping on the bandwagon, companies have begun to reissue and imitate their own earlier designs, and new software companies have taken to emulating audio equipment from the past. Far from being obsolete, vintage music technologies have new utility.