Scholar, critic, and Village Voice columnist Frith (Sound Effects,
1981; ed., Facing the Music, 1988) enlisted a coeditor to assemble
this hefty anthology of essays intended to "set the terms and
agenda of popular music studies." And the editors of this massive
text are indeed desperate in their search for a "sufficiently
complex method" to analyze - among other pop phenomena -
subcultures, the record biz, the music and lyrics, the stars, and
the fans. To that purpose they've gathered numerous hard-core
sociological articles - reprinted from journals such as the
American Sociological Review - that employ many of the traditional
methods of modern sociology; from David Riesman's classic statement
justifying the study of mass media to Donald Horton's
pseudoscientific content analysis of courtship lyrics; from Paul M.
Hirsch's heavy-duty study of fad-production (subtitled "An
Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems") to a
number of compelling "participant observer" studies on sound
mixers, recording sessions, and becoming a woman rocker - the last
a real nuts-and-bolts piece that spares us feminist rhetoric. Which
is certainly not the case with the many radical feminist pieces
scattered throughout the book: Angela McRobbie's metalevel
"corrective" to previous looks at male subcultures (teddies, mods,
punks, etc.); Sue Wise's humorless agonizing over her youthful
Elvis worship; Sheryl Garrat's lofty justification of her Bay City
Rollers fandom. More damaging to this anthology's value, though, is
its obvious bias for the worst kind of left-wing theorizing - the
kind only the truly converted care to read: Lawrence Grossberg's
celebration of the "postmodern situation"; Roger Wallis' and
Krister Malm's fears of pop's world-cultural hegemony; "and Richard
Dyer's gay socialist defense of disco as a means to "rediscover our
bodies" as part of the "experience of materialism and the
possibility for change." The best selections turn to the performers
- studies of the Ramones and Kate Bush stand out - and to the fans
themselves, as interviewed in Fred and Judy Vermorel's poignant
book, Starlust. Sure to become a key text in media studies courses
taught by academic Marxists. (Kirkus Reviews)
Classic sociological analyses of 'deviance' and rebellion; studies of technology; subcultural and feminist readings, semiotic and musicological essays and close readings of stars, bands and the fans themselves by Adorno, Barthes and other well-known contributors
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