Recording Resistance (An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels)

Expanded edition of An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, documenting the global soundtrack of social movements, solidarity, and revolutionary culture.

Recording Resistance: An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels is a groundbreaking exploration of the parallel rise of social movements and the vinyl record as the dominant form of music distribution in the second half of the twentieth century. Focusing on vinyl records and the labels that released them, this expanded edition is the definitive illustrated history of the infrastructure of recorded sound that carried global social movements and emblematized the vinyl record as an enduring form of music distribution on an international scale.

Just as the Civil Rights Movement leaps onto mainstream headlines in the early 1960s, the 33rpm “Long Player” and 45rpm single invade people’s stereos. All the major Civil Rights organizations release vinyl records of speeches, movement songs, and field recordings—setting the pace for the intertwining of social movements and easily distributed sound recordings. This relationship continues through the end of the twentieth century, which marked both the end of apartheid in South Africa and the dominance of the vinyl format. 

Recording Resistance is a compelling panorama of political sound and action, including over 1500 record labels from over two dozen countries and territories as well as a myriad of musical styles and forms. Arranged alphabetically from A-Disc—the record label of the Swedish labor movement—to Zulu Records, founded by free jazz pioneer Phil Choran, each entry includes the label's history, logo, and key contributions to political music and cultural production. Together, they form an unprecedented archive of the artists, organizers, and institutions that transformed music into a vehicle for education, organizing, and collective liberation.

Richly illustrated and international in scope, Recording Resistance is an indispensable reference for music lovers, collectors, scholars, librarians, DJs, archivists, and anyone interested in the history of social movements and the sounds that helped shape them.