Studying Popular Music Culture

Tim Wall is Professor of Radio and Popular Music Studies in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University in the UK. He taught on BA and MA programmes in media and cultural studies for over 25 years, specialising in radio, popular music and music industries. He researches into the production and consumption cultures around music and the media, and works on knowledge exchange projects with the wider creative industries. He was formerly an AHRC Knowledge Exchange Fellow and the Principal Investigator of the BBC Listeners Online project, along with leader on seven other major research projects.  His publications have included the second edition of his book Studying Popular Music Culture (Sage), and the second edition of the jointly authored Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context (Longman). His jointly edited The Northern Soul Scene (Equinox) was published in 2019. He has also published articles on music radio online, punk fanzines, the transistor radio, personal music listening, popular music on television, television music histories, jazz collectives, Duke Ellington on the radio, The X Factor and radio sound. He is currently writing the history of jazz on BBC radio from 1923 to 1973 (Equinox) and a co-editing a book on rethinking Miles Davis (OUP).

Tim Wall′s Studying Popular Music Culture is that rare thing, an academic study of music that seeks to tie together the strands of the musical text, the industry that produces it, and the audience that gives it meaning. Wall acts as a wary guide to an industry that is currently in total flux, showing the reader how conventional histories of popular music are shaped by social, industrial and technical factors that ultimately leak over into the ways in which we listen to and interpret music. The new edition provides a timely account of the history of the recorded music industry as it responds to new technologies and industrial approaches, with an ever-keen eye on how industrial practice relates to the ways in which audiences consume and use popular music in a variety of ways. Wall′s lucid style provides a coherent summary of a cultural form that is never easy to grapple with at the best of times. Studying Popular Music Culture is a vital read for anyone interested in the changing nature of popular music production and consumption, whether as student, an industry insider or just a fan of popular music.Dr Nathan Wiseman-TrowseThe University of Northampton

• Introduction: Definitions and ApproachesPART ONE: HISTORIES Constructing Histories of Popular MusicMusical and Cultural RepertoiresSocial, Economic and Technical FactorsWriting Popular Music HistoryPART TWO: INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONSAn Overview of Popular Music ProductionTaking Issue with the Record IndustryPopular Music and the MediaPART THREE: FORM, MEANING AND REPRESENTATIONFormMeaningRepresentationPART FOUR: AUDIENCES AND CONSUMPTIONThe Sociology of the Music ConsumerListening, and Looking DancingAcquiring, Organising and Sharing music