Simon Frith is Professor of English and Director of the John Logie Baird Centre at Strathclyde University. He is well-known as a rock critic and has written for Village Voice, The Sunday Times, and The Observer. He has been Chairman of the Judges of the Mercury Music Prize since 1992.

Frith understands precisely what pop music is actually for, and thus has a right to write about it that few others share. Pete Townshend This is a good, and arguably a great book. Colin McCabe, New Statesman & Society quite simply one of the best books I've ever read about music BBC Music Magazine Pop music matters to Frith, and he gives one of the best accounts yet written of how and why this should be so ... a very necessary book. Peter Aspden, Financial Times

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PART I MUSIC TALK: 1 THE VALUE PROBLEM IN CULTURAL STUDIES; 2 THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESPONSE; 3 COMMON SENSE AND THE LANGUAGE OF CRITICISM; 4 GENRE RULES; PART II ON MUSIC ITSELF: 5 WHERE DO SOUNDS COME FROM?; 6 RHYTHM: RACE, SEX, AND THE BODY; 7 RHYTHM: TIME, SEX, AND THE MIND; 8 SONGS AS TEXTS; 9 THE VOICE; 10 PERFORMANCE; 11 TECHNOLOGY AND AUTHORITY; PART III WHY MUSIC MATTERS: 12 THE MEANING OF MUSIC; 13 TOWARD A POPULAR AESTHETIC; NOTES; INDEX.

Simon Frith is Professor of English and Director of the John Logie Baird Centre at Strathclyde University. He is well-known as a rock critic and has written for Village Voice, The Sunday Times, and The Observer. He has been Chairman of the Judges of the Mercury Music Prize since 1992.

Frith understands precisely what pop music is actually for, and thus has a right to write about it that few others share. Pete Townshend This is a good, and arguably a great book. Colin McCabe, New Statesman & Society quite simply one of the best books I've ever read about music BBC Music Magazine Pop music matters to Frith, and he gives one of the best accounts yet written of how and why this should be so ... a very necessary book. Peter Aspden, Financial Times

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PART I MUSIC TALK: 1 THE VALUE PROBLEM IN CULTURAL STUDIES; 2 THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESPONSE; 3 COMMON SENSE AND THE LANGUAGE OF CRITICISM; 4 GENRE RULES; PART II ON MUSIC ITSELF: 5 WHERE DO SOUNDS COME FROM?; 6 RHYTHM: RACE, SEX, AND THE BODY; 7 RHYTHM: TIME, SEX, AND THE MIND; 8 SONGS AS TEXTS; 9 THE VOICE; 10 PERFORMANCE; 11 TECHNOLOGY AND AUTHORITY; PART III WHY MUSIC MATTERS: 12 THE MEANING OF MUSIC; 13 TOWARD A POPULAR AESTHETIC; NOTES; INDEX.

Simon Frith is Professor of English and Director of the John Logie Baird Centre at Strathclyde University. He is well-known as a rock critic and has written for Village Voice, The Sunday Times, and The Observer. He has been Chairman of the Judges of the Mercury Music Prize since 1992.

Frith understands precisely what pop music is actually for, and thus has a right to write about it that few others share. Pete Townshend This is a good, and arguably a great book. Colin McCabe, New Statesman & Society quite simply one of the best books I've ever read about music BBC Music Magazine Pop music matters to Frith, and he gives one of the best accounts yet written of how and why this should be so ... a very necessary book. Peter Aspden, Financial Times

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; PART I MUSIC TALK: 1 THE VALUE PROBLEM IN CULTURAL STUDIES; 2 THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESPONSE; 3 COMMON SENSE AND THE LANGUAGE OF CRITICISM; 4 GENRE RULES; PART II ON MUSIC ITSELF: 5 WHERE DO SOUNDS COME FROM?; 6 RHYTHM: RACE, SEX, AND THE BODY; 7 RHYTHM: TIME, SEX, AND THE MIND; 8 SONGS AS TEXTS; 9 THE VOICE; 10 PERFORMANCE; 11 TECHNOLOGY AND AUTHORITY; PART III WHY MUSIC MATTERS: 12 THE MEANING OF MUSIC; 13 TOWARD A POPULAR AESTHETIC; NOTES; INDEX.