Pop Music, Pop Culture

What is happening to pop music and pop culture? Synthesizers, samplers and MDI systems have allowed anyone with basic computingskills to make music. Exchange is now automatic and weightless withthe result that the High Street record store is dying.MySpace, Twitter and You Tube are now moreimportant publicity venues for new bands than the concert tourroutine. Unauthorized consumption in the form of illegaldownloading has created a financial crisis in the industry. The oldpostwar industrial planning model of pop, which centralized controlin the hands of major record corporations, and divided the marketinto neat segments, is dissolving in front of our eyes.

This book offers readers a comprehensive guide to understandingpop music today. It provides a clear survey of the field and adescription of core concepts. The main theoretical approaches tothe analysis of pop are described and critically assessed. The bookincludes a major investigation of the revolutionary changes in theproduction, exchange and consumption of pop music that arecurrently underway.

Pop Music, Pop Culture is an accomplished, magneticallyinteresting guide to understanding pop music today.