Franco Fabbri is Professor of Popular Music, and Techniques and Cultures of Sound and Music, at the University of Torino in Italy. He has published widely and in many languages on subjects such as pop music, genre theory and music in the digital age.Goffredo Plastino is Reader in Ethnomusicology at Newcastle University in the UK. He has co-edited multiple volumes on popular music and has published in several languages on folk music, jazz, and organology.

"Taken together, the chapters in this book present a fine introduction to major topics in the field of popular music in Italy since the 1950s... Readers whose knowledge of popular music in Italy is only partial or superficial, and certainly readers who are novice and seeking to learn about it, will greatly benefit from this book. Clearly written, the chapters provide a wealth of information, both at the factual and at the interpretive level." - Motti Regev, Open University of Israel, Journal of World Popular Music"This is a significant volume for the introduction of Italian popular music to an English-speaking audience and will be fundamental reading for students, researchers, and non-specialist readers alike." - Rachel Haworth in VOLUME!

• Introduction: An Egg of Columbus: How Can Italian Popular Music Studies Stand on Their Own Part I: Themes 1. Italy in Music: A Sweeping (and Somewhat Audacious) Reconstruction of a Problematic Identity 2. Sanremo Effects: The Festival and the Italian Canzone (1950s-1960s) 3. And the Bitt Went On 4. Naples Power: Neapolitan Sounds of the 1970s 5. Music Economies and Markets in Italy Part II: Singer-Songwriters 6. A Portrait of the Author as an Artist: Ideology, Authenticity and Stylization in the Canzone d’Autore 7. Canzoni Diverse: A Semiotic Approach to Luigi Tenco’s Songs 8. You Can Call Them, If You Like, Emotions: The (Un)Orthodox Songs of Lucio Battisti 9. Saved Souls: Locating Style in Fabrizio De André’s and Ivano Fossati’s Record Production 10. Mystical Arrogance: Franco Battiato’s Esoteric Pop Part III: Stories 11. An Escape from Escapism: The Short History of Cantacronache 12. Virtuosity and Populism: The Everlasting Appeal of Mina and Celentano 13. In the Court of a Foreign King: 1970s Italian Progressive Rock in the UK 14. Radiofreccia: An Rocker from Emilia behind the Film Camera 15. Killer Melodies: The Musica Neomelodica Debate Coda 16. Lasciatemi Cantare and Other Diseases: Italian Popular Music, as Represented Abroad Afterword Provisionally Popular: A Conversation with Ennio Morricone