Legions of Boom

Oliver Wang is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. He is the editor of Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide and has written for NPR, Vibe, Wax Poetics, the Los Angeles Times, the Oakland Tribune, and the Village Voice, amongst others.

• Acknowledgments  ixPrologue. The Gig  1Introduction. A Legion of Boom  71. Cue it Up: Social Preconditions for the Mobile Scene  292. Team Building: Mobile Crew Formations  493. Unlimited Creations: The Mobile Scene Takes Off  794. Imaginings: Building Community in the Showcase Era  955. Take Me Out with the Fader: The Decline of the Mobile Scene  125Conclusion. Echo Effects  151Appendix 1. Captians of the Field: San Francisco Drill Teams  163Appendix 2. Born Versus Sworn: Filipino American Youth Gangs  167Notes  173References  203Index  213

“Wang's account strikes a careful balance between oral history and analysis, grounded in ethnography while also working to interpret and elaborate the significance of the story. … [W]ith an annotated oral history at its core, Legions Of Boom is centred on the words of the scene's participants and Wang's insightful perspectives as a scholar, a journalist and a DJ.” - Wayne Marshall (The Wire) "It's not easy to write a book that works both as an academic text and is readily accessible to the general public, but Wang does an excellent job walking that line with Legions of Boom. His research is great, and he explains things in a way that is very easy to digest. I couldn’t recommend this book enough." - Chi Chi (Scratched Vinyl) "This highly readable book significantly advances our understandings of music scenes and their symbiotic relationship with marginalized communities of youth. Since historically Filipino Americans have been excluded from U.S. racial/ethnic discourse, Wang does sociology a tremendous service in shining further light on a key aspect of this important group’s history." - Anthony Kwame Harrison (American Journal of Sociology) "The greatest strength of Wang’s work, above and beyond providing important historical documentation of a neglected musical scene, is that he offers a sophisticated theoretical analysis that highlights how social class, gender, and ethnicity structure the distribution of various types of capital (symbolic, erotic, cultural, economic) within mobile DJing." - Athena Elafros (Contemporary Sociology) "Wang writes in an accessible style appealing to both scholars and casual readers.... Legions of Boom is a substantial work that shines light on yet another example of a musical genre’s relation to the formation and maintenance of cultural identities."- Niel Scobie (Perfect Beat)