This extensively revised new edition of Understanding Popular Music Culture provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the production, distribution, consumption and meaning of popular music and the difficulties and debates that surround the analysis of popular culture and popular music.

Reflecting the continued expansion of popular music studies, the changing music industry and the impact of new technologies, Roy Shuker explores key subjects that shape our experience of music, including music production, musicians and stars, musical texts, music video and MTV, audiences and fans, scenes and subcultures and music as political activism and ideology.

This heavily revised and updated fourth edition includes:

the role of social network sites, marketing and music retail

the decline of the traditional model of the sound recording companies

music genres, cover songs and the album canon

case studies of artists such as Robert Johnson, the Sex Pistols, Shania Twain and Lady Gaga

a comprehensive discography, based around musical metagenres, along with suggestions for further reading, listening and viewing.

The book now has an accompanying website, with focus questions and further study activities for each chapter, additional case studies and links to relevant websites.

Contents

Introduction ‘What’s goin’ on?’: Studying Popular Music Culture 1. ‘Every 1’s a Winner’: Music as a Cultural Industry 2. ‘Pump up the Volume’: Music and Technology 3. ‘I’m Just a Singer’: Making Music, the Rock Musician and the Success Continuum 4. ‘So You Want to be a Rock’n’Roll Star?’: Autuers and Stars 5. ‘Message Understood’?: Textual Analysis and Popular Musicology 6.‘Its just Rock’n’ Roll to Me’: Genre, Authenticity and the Canon 7.‘Shop Around’: Marketing and Mediation 8. ‘U Got the Look’: m to Video Games: Music and Pictures 9. ‘On the Cover of the Rolling Stone’: The Music Press 10. ‘My Generation’: Identity and Consumption: Audiences, Fans, and Social Networks 11. ‘Sound of our Town’: Subcultures, Sounds and Scenes 12. ‘Revolution’: Social Change, Conscience Rock, and Identity Politics 13. ‘Pushin too Hard’: Moral Panics 14. ‘We Are the World’: State Music Policy Conclusion ‘Wrap it up’: Making Music, Making Meaning

Author Bio

Roy Shuker is Associate Professor in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His previous publications include Understanding Popular Music Culture (3rd Edition, 2008) and Popular Music: The Key Concepts (3rd Edition, 2012).