1st Edition

The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology

Edited By Derek B. Scott Copyright 2009

    The research presented in this volume is very recent, and the general approach is that of rethinking popular musicology: its purpose, its aims, and its methods. Contributors to the volume were asked to write something original and, at the same time, to provide an instructive example of a particular way of working and thinking. The essays have been written with a view to helping graduate students with research methodology and the application of relevant theoretical models. The team of contributors is an exceptionally strong one: it contains many of the pre-eminent academic figures involved in popular musicological research, and there is a spread of European, American, Asian, and Australasian scholars. The volume covers seven main themes: Film, Video and Multimedia; Technology and Studio Production; Gender and Sexuality; Identity and Ethnicity; Performance and Gesture; Reception and Scenes and The Music Industry and Globalization. The Ashgate Research Companion is designed to offer scholars and graduate students a comprehensive and authoritative state-of-the-art review of current research in a particular area. The companion's editor brings together a team of respected and experienced experts to write chapters on the key issues in their speciality, providing a comprehensive reference to the field.

    Introduction; 1: Film, Video and Multimedia; 1: Trevor Jones's Score for In the Name of the Father; 2: Music, Sound and the Moving Image: The Present and a Future? 1; 3: Reinventing Question Time; 4: Televised Live Performance, Looping Technology and the ‘Nu Folk': KT Tunstall on Later … with Jools Holland; 2: Technology and Studio Production; 5: Learning to Listen to Perfect Sound: Hi-fi Culture and Changes in Modes of Listening, 1950–80; 6: Approaches to Analysing Recordings of Popular Music; 7: The Art of Phonography: Sound, Technology and Music 1; 3: Gender and Sexuality; 8: Genre, Subjectivity and Back-up Singing in Rock Music; 9: Notes on Musical Camp; 10: Who Are You? Research Strategies of the Unruly Feminine; 11: ‘I'm a Man': Masculinities in Popular Music; 4: Identity and Ethnicity; 12: The Woven World: Unravelling the Mainstream and the Alternative in Greek Popular Music; 13: Dayton Street Funk: The Layering of Multiple Identities 1; 14: Black, White and Brown on the Dance Floor: The New Meanings of Panjabiyat in the Twenty-first Century; 5: Performence and Gesture; 15: Musical Persona: The Physical Performance of Popular Music 1; 16: Vocal Performance and the Projection of Emotional Authenticity; 17: ‘Chelsea Rodgers' was a Model – Vocality in Prince of the Twenty-first Century; 18: Singing Style and White Masculinity; 19: Talking Music, Making Music: A Comparison between Rap and Techno 1; 6: Reception and Scenes; 20: Absolute Beginners: The Evolution of a British Popular Music Scene; 21: Studying Reception and Scenes; 22: Interpretation: So What? 1; 7: The Music Industry and Globalization; 23: Beyond the Master Narrative of Youth: Researching Ageing Popular Music Scenes; 24: Music and the Creative Knowledge Economy; 25: The Transnational Music Industry; 26: Pop Idol: Global Economy – Local Meanings

    Biography

    Derek B. Scott is Professor of Critical Musicology and Head of the School of Music at the University of Leeds, UK.

    Prize: A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2010 'A cornucopian tome, containing more methodological diversity than any one scholar is likely to think necessary. It enlarges the compass of popular music studies and draws our attention to generative topics and tactics.' Robert Walser, University of California, Los Angeles 'Impressive in its scope, the Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology makes a much-needed contribution to the scholarly literature on popular music. Especially noteworthy is the explication and exploration of the field of Popular Musicology, with its simultaneous emphasis on the textuality of music and critical method. These essays argue convincingly that the details of musical sound do matter, and that these details are integral to cultural meaning. Derek B. Scott is to be commended for bringing together such a diverse and distinguished group of scholars'. David Brackett, McGill University, Canada ’With this substantial collection, Scott solves a Herculean problem long evident in popular-music scholarship: where does one go for a thorough rethinking of this body of work? Although the seven sections of the collection are on seemingly disparate themes, the relationships among these themes are apparent in the outstanding work in each essay. ... These ideas are all welcome at a time when popular-music scholarship is in danger of stagnation and fragmentation. Summing Up: Highly Recommended.’ Choice 'The material in this book is pretty much essential to any popular music scholar, regardless of disciplinary background. If your library hasn't already ordered this volume, request it now.' Popular Music