The study of popular music has reached an exciting and important moment in its development. "Popular Music Studies" introduces students to the most significant debates in the field, offering fresh perspectives and suggesting new directions.

Section 1: musical meaning and history; masculinity and migrancy under early Apartheid - gender and popular song in South Africa; analyzing popular songs; cover versions and the sound of identity in motion; in search of musical meaning - genres, categories and crossover. Section 2: audiences, consumption and everyday life; raving, not drowning - authenticity, pleasure and politics in the electronic dance music scene; the curse of fandom - insiders, outsiders and ethnography; popular music audiences and everyday life; ubiquitious listening. Section 3: production, industry and creativity; mainstreaming - hegemony, music markets and the aesthetics of the centre; value and velocity - the twelve-inch single as medium and artefact; creativity and musical experience; the politics of Calypso in a world of music industries. Section 4: place, space and power; locating Salsa; blacking Japanese, experiencing otherness from afar; India song - popular music genres since economic liberalization; rock aesthetics and the "Pop-Rockization" of popular music.

'A stimulating, kaleidoscopic work of unprecedented geographical and methodological range. The editors' introduction is the finest concise overview of popular music studies I've seen.' Robert Walser, Professor and Chair of Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles 'An up-to-the-minute field report on the current state of popular music studies, this excellent collection has the merit of not just recommending interdisciplinary but practising it, not just criticising the undue pop/rock emphasis of an earlier stage but offering a model for an overdue increase in pluralism.' Richard Middleton, Professor, Department of Music, University of Newcastle, UK

The study of popular music has reached an exciting and important moment in its development. "Popular Music Studies" introduces students to the most significant debates in the field, offering fresh perspectives and suggesting new directions.