The Association for Recorded Sound Collections

2025 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research. The awards will be presented at a ceremony at ARSC's annual conference, which will be hosted May 14-17, 2025 in Tulsa, OK. Additional information about the ARSC Conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence may be found on the association's website.

Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards for Excellence are awarded to authors of books, articles, or recording liner notes to recognize those publishing the very best work today in recorded sound research. In giving these awards, ARSC recognizes the contributions of these individuals, aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards, and hopes to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category for Best History and Best Discography, and others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.

The 2025 Awards for Excellence honor works published in 2024.

Read the full press release.

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Popular Music ]

Best History
Sixties British Pop: Outside In, Volume 1: Downtown, 1956-1965 and Volume 2: Itchycoo Park, 1964-1970 by Gordon Ross Thompson (Oxford University Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Hardcore: The Cinematic World of Pulp by Paul Burgess and Louise Colbourn (Thames & Hudson)	Jesus Christ Superstar: Behind the Scenes of the Worldwide Musical Phenomenon by Ellis Nassour (Applause)	Bee Gees, Process and Latent Elements in Music Production by Pat O’Grady (Ashgate)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Crying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives of the Everly Brothers by Mark Ribowsky (Backbeat)	Recording Broadway: Life in Cast Albums by Thomas Z. Shepard and Gayden Wren (Applause)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Rock Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis by Douglas K. Miller (Liveright)	Cliff Richard: The Shadows Years: Every Song from Every Session 1958-1968 by Peter Checksfield (independently published)
Certificate of Merit
Two Headed Doctor: Listening for Ghosts in Dr. John's “Gris-Gris” by David Toop (MIT Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Classical Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
Meinrad Schütter, Maverick Swiss Composer by Ute Stoecklin, trans. Chris Walton (Toccata Press)	British Bell Records on Shellac & Vinyl: Church Bells, Tower Bells, Carillons & Handbells by Mark Jones (Bristol Folk Publications)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Sounds as They Are: The Unwritten Music in Classical Recordings by Richard Beaudoin (Oxford University Press)	Sergei Prokofiev by Christina Guillaumier (Reaktion Books)	Olivier Messiaen: A Critical Biography by Robert Sholl (Reaktion Books)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz ]

Best History
At the Vanguard of Vinyl: A Cultural History of the Long-Playing Record in Jazz by Darren Mueller (Duke University Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Jazz Radio America by Aaron J. Johnson (University of Illinois Press)	Ubuntu Fusion Music (Jazz under State Socialism) by Yvetta Kajanová (Peter Lang)	3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan (Penguin)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Labyrinth: British Jazz on Record 1960-75 by Richard Morton Jack (Lansdowne)	Liner notes to Centennial: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band by Ricky Riccardi (Archeophone)	The Boswell Legacy 2nd Edition: The Story of the Boswell Sisters of New Orleans and the New Music They Gave to the World by Kyla Titus and Chica Boswell Minnerly (independently published)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
The Jazz Men: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye (Mariner Books)	The Routledge Companion to Diasporic Jazz Studies by Ádám Havas, Bruce Johnson and David Horn, eds. (Routledge)	Jazz Revolutionary: The Life & Music of Eric Dolphy by Jonathon Grasse (Jawbone)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Country, Folk, World, or Roots Music ]

Best History	Best Discography
My Black Country: A Journey through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future by Alice Randall (Atria/Black Privilege Publishing)	Dolly Parton All the Songs: The Stories Behind Every Track by Simon Benoît, Damien Somville and Lalie Walker (Black Dog & Leventhal)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Rockin' the Kremlin: My Incredible True Story of Gangsters, Oligarchs and Pop Stars in Putin's Russia by David Junk with Fred Bronson (Rowman & Littlefield)	A Chance to Harmonize: How FDR’s Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save America from the Great Depression—One Song at a Time by Sheryl Kaskowitz (Pegasus Books)	Pressure Drop: Reggae in the Seventies by John Masouri (Omnibus Press)
Certificate of Merit
Cold War Country: How Nashville's Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism by Joseph M. Thompson (University of North Carolina Press)

[ Best Historical Research in Recorded Blues, R&B, Gospel, Hip Hop or Soul Music ]

Best History
Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States by Matthew D. Morrison (University of California Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Spirit of the Century: Our Own Story by The Blind Boys of Alabama with Preston Lauterbach (Hachette)	Rapper's Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World by Todd Boyd (Phaidon Press)	Chicago House Music: Culture and Community by Marguerite L. Harrold (Belt Publishing)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
The Life and Music of Booker "Bukka" White: Recalling the Blues by David W. Johnson (University Press of Mississippi)	The Funk Queen: An Autobiography by Dawn Silva (New Rising Publishing)	Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories by Elijah Wald (Hachette)

[ Best Historical Research on Record Labels or General Recording Topics ]

Best History	Best Discography
Hanna-Barbera, The Recorded History: From Modern Stone Age to Meddling Kids by Greg Ehrbar (University Press of Mississippi)	Paramount 12000/13000 Series, updated and expanded edition by Guido van Rijn and Max Vreede (Agram Books)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-Improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records by Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder (MIT Press)	Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as Told on Nine Comedy Albums by Jeremy Braddock (University of California Press)	Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable by Rob Drew (Duke University Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music by Alison Fenstock, ed. (HarperOne)	Knowing by Ear: Listening to Voice Recordings with African Prisoners of War in German Camps (1915–1918) by Anette Hoffmann (Duke University Press)	Made in NuYoRico: Fania Records, Latin Music, and Salsa’s Nuyorican Meanings by Marisol Negrón (Duke University Press)
Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit	Certificate of Merit
Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Cost of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly (One Signal Publishers)	The Bastard Instrument: A Cultural History of the Electric Bass by Brian F. Right (University of Michigan Press)	Format Friction: Perspectives on the Shellac Disc by Gavin Williams (University of Chicago Press)

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