Understanding Popular Music

Understanding Popular Music
Author: Roy Shuker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1134564791

Understanding Popular Music is a comprehensive introduction to the history and meaning of popular music. It begins with a critical assessment of the different ways in which popular music has been studied and the difficulties and debates which surround the analysis of popular culture and popular music. Drawing on the recent work of music scholars and the popular music press, Shuker explores key subjects which shape our experience of music, including music production, the music industry, music policy, fans, audiences and subcultures, the musician as 'star', music journalism, and the reception and consumption of popular music. This fully revised and updated second edition includes: *case studies and lyrics of artists such as Shania Twain, S Club 7, The Spice Girls and Fat Boy Slim * the impact of technologies including on-line delivery and the debates over MP3 and Napster * the rise of DJ culture and the changing idea of the 'musician' * a critique of gender and sexual politics and the discrimination which exists in the music industry * moral panics over popular music including the controversies surrounding artists such as Marilyn Manson and Ice-T * a comprehensive discography, guide to further reading and directory of websites.

Studying Popular Music Culture

Studying Popular Music Culture
Author: Tim Wall
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2013-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1446291014

That rare thing, an academic study of music that seeks to tie together the strands of the musical text, the industry that produces it, and the audience that gives it meaning... A vital read for anyone interested in the changing nature of popular music production and consumption" - Dr Nathan Wiseman-Trowse, The University of Northampton Popular music entertains, inspires and even empowers, but where did it come from, how is it made, what does it mean, and how does it eventually reach our ears? Tim Wall guides students through the many ways we can analyse music and the music industries, highlighting crucial skills and useful research tips. Taking into account recent changes and developments in the industry, this book outlines the key concepts, offers fresh perspectives and encourages readers to reflect on their own work. Written with clarity, flair and enthusiasm, it covers: Histories of popular music, their traditions and cultural, social, economic and technical factors Industries and institutions, production, new technology, and the entertainment media Musical form, meaning and representation Audiences and consumption. Students′ learning is consolidated through a set of insightful case studies, engaging activities and helpful suggestions for further reading.

Japanese Popular Music

Japanese Popular Music
Author: Carolyn S. Stevens
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2012-08-21
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1134179510

Japanese popular culture has been steadily increasing in visibility both in Asia and beyond in recent years. This book examines Japanese popular music, exploring its historical development, technology, business and production aspects, audiences, and language and culture. Based both on extensive textual and aural analysis, and on anthropological fieldwork, it provides a wealth of detail, finding differences as well as similarities between the Japanese and Western pop music scenes. Carolyn Stevens shows how Japanese popular music has responded over time to Japan's relationship to the West in the post-war era, gradually growing in independence from the political and cultural hegemonic presence of America. Similarly, the volume explores the ways in which the Japanese artist has grown in independence vis-Ă -vis his/her role in the production process, and examines in detail the increasingly important role of the jimusho, or the entertainment management agency, where many individual artists and music industry professionals make decisions about how the product is delivered to the public. It also discusses the connections to Japanese television, film, print and internet, thereby providing through pop music a key to understanding much of Japanese popular culture more widely.

Understanding Popular Music Culture

Understanding Popular Music Culture
Author: Roy Shuker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2008
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0415419050

Focusing on the variety of genres that make up pop music, Roy Shuker explores key subjects which shape our experience of music such as music production, the music industry, music policy, fans, audiences and subcultures.

Popular Music in Theory

Popular Music in Theory
Author: Keith Negus
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1997-02-28
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780819563101

A lively contribution to the debates that are central to popular music studies.

Pop Music, Pop Culture

Pop Music, Pop Culture
Author: Chris Rojek
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2011-06-13
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0745642640

What is happening to pop music and pop culture? Synthesizers, samplers and MDI systems have allowed anyone with basic computing skills to make music. Exchange is now automatic and weightless with the result that the High Street record store is dying. MySpace, Twitter and You Tube are now more important publicity venues for new bands than the concert tour routine. Unauthorized consumption in the form of illegal downloading has created a financial crisis in the industry. The old postwar industrial planning model of pop, which centralized control in the hands of major record corporations, and divided the market into neat segments, is dissolving in front of our eyes. This book offers readers a comprehensive guide to understanding pop music today. It provides a clear survey of the field and a description of core concepts. The main theoretical approaches to the analysis of pop are described and critically assessed. The book includes a major investigation of the revolutionary changes in the production, exchange and consumption of pop music that are currently underway. Pop Music, Pop Culture is an accomplished, magnetically interesting guide to understanding pop music today.

Popular Music

Popular Music
Author: Roy Shuker
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2005
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780415347709

With 'Key Concepts in Popular Music', Roy Shuker presents a comprehensive A-Z glossary of the main terms and concepts used in the study of popular music.

Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles

Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles
Author: Sara Cohen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2017-09-29
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1351218417

How is popular music culture connected with the life, image, and identity of a city? How, for example, did the Beatles emerge in Liverpool, how did they come to be categorized as part of Liverpool culture and identity and used to develop and promote the city, and how have connections between the Beatles and Liverpool been forged and contested? This book explores the relationship between popular music and the city using Liverpool as a case study. Firstly, it examines the impact of social and economic change within that city on its popular music culture, focusing on de-industrialization and economic restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, and in turn, it considers the specificity of popular music culture and the many diverse ways in which it influences city life and informs the way that the city is thought about, valued and experienced. Cohen highlights popular music's unique role and significance in the making of cities, and illustrates how de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and harness and mobilize it as a local resource. In doing so she adopts an approach that recognizes music as a social and symbolic practice encompassing a diversity of roles and characteristics: music as a culture or way of life distinguished by social and ideological conventions; music as sound; speech and discourse about music; and music as a commodity and industry.

Country Music Culture

Country Music Culture
Author: Curtis W. Ellison
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1995
Genre: Country music
ISBN: 9781604739343

A social history of country music from the 1920s to the present, discussing such artists as Patsy Cline, Grandpa Jones, Dolly Parton, and Garth Brooks.

Popular Music and Youth Culture

Popular Music and Youth Culture
Author: Andy Bennett
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2000-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780312227531

Combining a critical evaluation of recent work on youth, music and local identity with original ethnographic work, this book provides a wide-ranging study of music and style-centered youth cultures in a local context. Detailed studies of dance music, rap, bhangra and progressive rock examine how these musical styles become part of daily life in different urban settings. In addition, the book features exploration of white hip hop culture in Britain, the socio-cultural significance of local pub venues and the increasing popularity of "tribute" bands.