Brief Description
This is the first textbook on Pop Music to be written after the start of the iPod era.
The book is organized in accessible sections which cover the main themes of research and teaching. It examines the key approaches to understanding popular music, the main settings of exchange and consumption, the role of technology in the production of popular music, the main genres of popular music, andthe key debates of the present day.
Barbazon writes with verve and penetration. Her approach starts with how most people actually consume music today and transfers this onto the plain of study.
The organization of the material enables teachers and students to shuffle from one topic to the next. Yet the book provides an unparalleled network to the core library of concepts and issues in the field. As such, it is the perfect study guide for undergraduates located in this exciting and expanding field.
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About the Author
Tara Brabazon is Professor of Media at the University of Brighton, Visiting Professor at Edge Hill's SOLSTICE CETL, and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA).
Previously, Tara has held academic positions in both Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. An outstanding teacher, she won six teaching awards, including the Australian National Teaching Award for the Humanities in 1998, along with others in the areas of disability and cultural studies. In 2005, Tara won both the Murdoch University Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year and the Teaching Excellence Award. In 2009 and she won the University of Brighton's Teaching Excellence Award, nominated by both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She was a finalist for the 2005 Australian of the Year and also the 2005 Telstra Businesswoman of the Year in the Community Service category. In 1999 and 2002, she was short-listed for the Western Australian Citizen of the Year.
Review Quotes
1. An incredibly wide-ranging critical account of popular music. The book is an essential resource for all staff and students in the field
Prof John Storey
Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland
One of the most thoughtful, inspirational and engaging popular music texts of recent years. It deserves to be well-thumbed by popular music students, academics and researchers alike. Insightful at every corner, the text covers a kaleidoscopic range of subjects - from country music to copyright, Madchester to Myspace - and delivers a wonderfully clear, authoritative and lively invitation to think and write about music. As pedagogically enriching as it is analytically sophisticated, the text not only describes current digital music cultures, but also suggests fruitful movements beyond current orthodoxies of popular music studies. A serious intervention that just so happens to be a clear and accessible textbook
Nick Prior
Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Edinburgh
