The Pynchon Playlist: A Catalog and Its Analysis

Abstract

The Pynchon Playlist is a catalog of 927 identified historical musicians and works of music in Thomas Pynchon's work to date. It allows for a bird's-eye view on the relative importance of different genres and time periods throughout Pynchon's career and is able to answer some questions that were hitherto mainly addressed in an intuitive manner: Which novels have the highest density of musical references? What musicians, works of music, genres, genders, performative settings are referred to most often? Are different groups of novels to be made out? If one were to draw two lines of influence for Pynchon's choice of musical material, it would be the technological and commercial developments on the one hand (in other words, a line that has much to do with a historically plausible depiction of the musical landscape) and Pynchon's own predilections and musical interests (or those of his and subsequent generations), which seem to have become less "serious" and less experimental as his career progressed.