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Popular Music and Society, 2nd edition, by Brian Longhurst Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2007. 288pp. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 9780745631639.
The rapidly changing dynamics of popular music production and consumption require frequent updates in overviews of the field. Responding to this need, this book is a welcome revision of Brian Longhurst's 1996 survey of popular music in society. Beyond the specific goal of building critical perspectives on popular music from a social scientific perspective, the subject is also an ideal vehicle for introducing the sociology of culture. Longhurst's multidisciplinary approach draws on a rich collection of previous studies that unfold historical narratives, employ ethnographic observations, examine quantitative data and use textual and musical analysis to explore popular music along its winding path through songwriters and performers, producers and audiences. The introduction briefly presents select classical approaches to culture and society, emphasizing those especially relevant to popular music. Longhurst begins with Adorno's approach to music and Weber's influence on cultural theory, and uses both as a springboard for considering contemporary perspectives, divided into critical, celebratory, and analytical categories. While addressing sociological and aesthetic issues, the author also articulates definitions of modernism, post-modernism, and realism, thus situating popular music within broader discussions pertinent to the sociology of culture.
The chapters are divided into three sections devoted to production, text, and audience, and reflecting the...