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Popular Music and Society

Popular Music and Society

by Brian Longhurst (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 1995

    $3.20
Synopsis

This new edition of ??AAPopular Music and Society??AA, fully revised and updated, continues to pioneer an approach to the study of popular music that is informed by wider debates in sociology and media and cultural studies. Astute and accessible, it continues to set the agenda for research and teaching in this area. The book begins by examining the ways in which popular music is produced, before moving on to explore its structure as text and the ways in which audiences understand and use music. Packed with examples and data on the contemporary production and consumption of popular music, the book also includes overviews and critiques of theoretical approaches to this exciting area of study and outlines the most important empirical studies which have shaped the discipline.Topics covered herein include: the contemporary organization of the music industry; the effects of technological change on production; the history and politics of popular music; gender, sexuality and ethnicity; subcultures; fans and music celebrities. For this new edition, two new chapters have been added: on performance and the body, and on the very latest ways of thinking about audiences and the spaces and places of music consumption. It will continue to be required reading for students of the sociology of culture, media and communication studies, and popular culture.

$3.20

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 296
 Edition: 1st ed
 Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 08 May 1995
ISBN 10: 0745614647
ISBN 13: 9780745614649

Media Reviews
A thoughtful and systematic introduction, full of up-to-date information, this book speaks simultaneously to students of socio-musical analysis and to all of us for whom music matters. 'Finally! A comprehensive and comprehensible textbook on popular music. It not only provides a good overview of the state of the field for anyone interested in popular culture and mass media, it should also help bring popular music studies into the university classroom as a serious and necessary topic.'Professor Lawrence Grossberg, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill This book provides an up-to-date introduction to the study of popular music. It is written in the belief that the analysis of popular music needs to be informed by wider debates in sociology and cultural studies. The book examines the ways in which popular music is produced, structured as text, and understood and used by audiences. It includes overviews and critiques of general theories, outlines of the most important empirical studies, and data on the contemporary production and consumption of popular music. Drawing on the theories of Adorno and Weber, Longhurst examines the contemporary organization of the music industry, the social production of music, and the effects of technological change on production. The history and politics of popular music are discussed, as are the connections of popular music and sexuality. Issues such as authenticity, stemming from the debates around black music, are addressed, and several different ways of studying the text of popular music are reviewed. The literature on sub culture and music is looked at in the context of an examination of the audience for pop music. Developing work on fans is considered, as are contemporary approaches which problematize relationships of production and consumption. Clearly written and well illustrated, popular music and society will be and excellent textbook for students in the sociology of culture, cultural studies, and media am d communication studies.
Author Bio
Brian Longhurst is lecturer in sociology at the University of Salford. His previous books include Karl Mannheim and the Contemporary Sociology of Knowledge (1989) and Discourse, Power and Justice: A new Approach to the Socilogy of Imprisonment (co-author, 1994).