“In the process of developing his masterful model of musical culture in the age of expediency, Luker addresses many aspects of musical life that have all too often been neglected by ethnomusicologists, including the roles of NGOs, diverse kinds of media companies, government policies, and international cultural heritage projects. His broad insights, based on a rich multilevel ethnography of tango music in Buenos Aires in the twenty-first century, have implications for music throughout Latin America and beyond.”

Anthony Seeger, University of California, Los Angeles

“On one level, The Tango Machine fills a surprising gap in the English-language literature, serving the need for an analytical yet accessible monograph on contemporary tango. Yet it does much more than this: it also treats tango as a case study of music as a multi-faceted cultural resource in the ‘age of expediency,’ and its theorization of how music is used in Buenos Aires, the ‘managerial regimes’ that organize it, and the multiplicity of values, contradictions, and synergies that it accrues, will shed light far beyond Argentina.”

Geoffrey Baker, Royal Holloway, University of London

"Examines how contemporary tango music has been drawn upon and used as a resource for cultural, social, and economic development in Buenos Aires, addressing how the value and meaning of musical culture has been reframed by the age of expediency."

Journal of Economic Literature