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Sex Roles (2014) 70:439441 DOI 10.1007/s11199-014-0362-z
BOOK REVIEW
The Real Hot Mess: The Sexist Branding of Female Pop Stars
Gender, Branding, and the Modern Music Industry: The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars. By Kristin J. Lieb, New York, Routledge, 2013. 194 pp. $29.95 (paperback) ISBN:978-0-415-89490-6
Jane Caputi
Published online: 8 March 2014# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
I regularly teach an interdisciplinary undergraduate class, Introduction to Sexuality and Gender Studies and it is not easy to find the right books to use. One needs not only a core, survey-type text, but also additional books that delve into specialty areas, simultaneously providing grounding in core definitions and theoretical concepts and putting them to a most interesting application. Gender, Branding and the Modern Music Industry is focused on female pop stars in the United States music industry. It is an ideal book for use in this class and I am sure it will be equally useful for others teaching courses with a U.S. focus in Communication and Multimedia, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Popular Culture Studies and some Sociology and Marketing classes.
Some years ago, bell hooks, in an interview with Sut Jhally (1997), noted the benefits of teaching critical theoretical paradigms while putting them into the context of popular culture, which makes these paradigms not only easier to grasp, but more exciting to students. Gender, Branding, and the Modern Music Industry ably accomplishes this goal, while taking in a number of theoretical paradigms and research methods. It also includes the authors incorporation of information gained through her interviews with key players in the music industry in the United States. And it remains an easily graspable and digestible work.
The theoretical grounding for Gender, Branding, and the Modern Music Industry is drawn from a number of intersecting academic fields, including communication and multimedia studies, women and gender studies, sociology, popular culture and marketing. Kristin J. Lieb is an Assistant Professor of marketing communication at Emerson College in Boston and she also brings experience as a freelance writer for
Billboard, http://www.billboard.com/
Web End =http://www.billboard.com/ , and Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/
Web End =http://www.rollingstone.com/ . These journalistic skills are evident in her facility for clear expression. Lieb is particularly good at defining essential theoretical terms and concepts...