Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Understanding Popular Music Culture is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the history and meaning of popular music. It begins with a critical assessment of the different ways in which popular music has been studied and the difficulties and debates which surround the analysis of popular culture and popular music.
Drawing on the recent work of music scholars and the popular music press, Roy Shuker explores key subjects which shape our experience of music, including music production, the music industry, music policy, fans, audiences and subcultures, the musician as 'star', music journalism, and the reception and consumption of popular music. This fully revised and updated second edition includes:
*case studies and lyrics of artists such as Shania Twain, S Club 7, The Spice Girls and Fat Boy Slim
* the impact of technologies including on-line delivery and the debates over MP3 and Napster
* the rise of DJ culture and the changing idea of the 'musician'
* a critique of gender and sexual politics and the discrimination which exists in the music industry
* moral panics over popular music including the controversies surrounding artists such as Marilyn Manson and Ice-T
* a comprehensive discography, guide to further reading and directory of websites.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• 1 'What's Goin' On?
• Popular culture, popular music, and media literacy
• 2 'Every 1's a Winner'
• The music industry
• 3 'Pump Up the Volume'
• Technology and popular music
• 4 'We are the World'
• State music policy, cultural imperialism, and globalisation
• 5 'On the Cover of the Rolling Stone'
• The music press
• 6 'I'm just a singer (in a rock 'n' roll band)
• Making music
• 7 'So You Want to be a Rock 'N' Roll Star?'
• Stars and Auteurs
• 8 'Message Understood'
• Musicology and genres
• 9 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
• Musical texts
• 10 'U Got the Look'
• Film & television, music video & MTV
• 11 'My Generation'
• Audiences and fans; scenes and subcultures
• 12 'Pushin' Too Hard'
• Popular music and cultural politics Conclusion: 'Wrap it Up'
• Popular music and cultural meaning
• Appendix 1 The chapter/song titles
• Appendix 2 Discography Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Name Index
• Song and Title Index

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Presented in the larger context of cultural studies, Understanding Popular Music is a commendably comprehensive analysis not only of 20th-century popular music itself but also of its major cultural theorists. Shuker (media studies, Massey Univ., New Zealand) knowledgeably traces and treats almost every aspect of popular music, among them performance and recording technologies, the music industry, the music press, gender implications, political implications; and visual representations, both pre- and post-MTV. This substantially revamped work, first published in 1994, addresses newer artists, genres, and technologies and also reconsiders initial evaluations of many theories and theorists. As with most studies to date in this area, Shuker's is rigidly and regrettably confined to Anglo-American popular music; collections seeking an appropriate balance should consider World Music: The Rough Guide (LJ 12/89). Nevertheless, this book's sophistication and theoretical bent make it a superb choice for academic libraries. Public libraries should consider more accessible works like Nick Johnstone's Melody Maker History of 20th-Century Popular Music (LJ 3/15/00). Bill Piekarski, Lackawanna, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.