Popular music has become not only one of the most lucrative spheres of human activity, but also one of the most influential on the identities of individuals and communities. Popular music matters, and it matters to many people, people we can only partially understand if we do not understand their music. In the light of this phenomenon the academic study of popular music has become universally established as an active discipline at university level and this timely series brings together the fruits of recent teaching and research in this field. It makes overt recognition of the fact that the study of popular music is necessarily inter-disciplinary and addresses issues as diverse as: the popular music industry and its institutions; aspects of the history of genres; issues in the theories and methodologies of study and practice; questions of the ontologies and hermeneutics of particular musics; the varying influence of different waves of technological development; the ways markets and audiences are constructed, reproduced and reached; and aspects of the repertory without which there would be no popular music to study. The eight volumes in this series span the range of the world's popular music genres from rap, hip hop, soul and jazz, to roots, electronica, dance and club music. Each volume editor has contributed an introductory essay which constitutes a broad overview of the specific group of genres, and made a selection of the most important and influential published articles, papers and other relevant material. Taken together, these volumes offer an invaluable resource for the study of popular music today in all its forms.
Edited
By Mark F. DeWitt
June 07, 2019
When we talk about roots music, what do we mean and what is at stake? Ethnomusicologist Mark F. DeWitt delves into these questions in an introductory bibliographic essay and selects twenty-one articles published between 1974 and 2010 that have advanced our knowledge and insight about this topic. ...
Edited
By Allan F. Moore
November 13, 2014
Popular music has become not only one of the most lucrative spheres of human activity, but also one of the most influential on the identities of individuals and communities. Popular music matters, and it matters to many people, people we can only partially understand if we do not understand their ...
By Tom Perchard
November 05, 2014
The essays contained in this volume address some of the most visible, durable and influential of African American musical styles as they developed from the mid-1960s into the 21st-century. Soul, funk, pop, R&B and hip hop practices are explored both singly and in their many convergences, and in ...
Edited
By Mark J. Butler
January 28, 2012
Discos, clubs and raves have been focal points for the development of new and distinctive musical and cultural practices over the past four decades. This volume presents the rich array of scholarship that has sprung up in response. Cutting-edge perspectives from a broad range of academic ...
Edited
By Tony Langlois
January 28, 2012
This collection provides readers with a diverse and contemporary overview of research in the field. Drawing upon scholarly writing from a range of disciplines and approaches, it provides case studies from a wide range of 'non Western' musical contexts. In so doing the volume attends to the central ...
Edited
By Mark Spicer
December 21, 2011
This volume gathers together twenty articles from among the best scholarly writing on rock music published in academic journals over the past two decades. These diverse essays reflect the wide range of approaches that scholars in various disciplines have applied to the study of rock, from those ...
Edited
By Julie McQuinn
October 28, 2011
The focus of this collection of essays is the powerful interaction between popular music and multimedia: film, television, music video and video games. Written by a diverse group of scholars and published within the last fifteen years, the essays examine new theories and methodologies and offer ...
Edited
By Stan Hawkins
September 12, 2011
What defines pop music? Why do we consider some styles as easier listening than others? Arranged in three parts: Aesthetics and Authenticity - Groove, Sampling and Industry - Subjectivity, Ethnicity and Politics, this collection of essays by a group of international scholars deals with these ...
Edited
By Tony Whyton
August 28, 2011
The featured articles in this volume provide an overview of jazz studies writings from the 1990s to the present day, and each text engages with issues that are central to the changing discourse of jazz in popular culture. The volume includes studies of specific scenes, artists and periods from ...