The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music

The Sage Handbook of Popular Music is a comprehensive, smartly-conceived volume that can take its place as the new standard textbook in popular music.  The editors have shown great care in covering classic debates while moving the field into new, exciting areas of scholarship.  International in its focus and pleasantly wide-ranging across historical periods, the Handbook is accessible to students but full of material of interest to those teaching and researching in the field.


Celebrating the maturation of popular music studies and recognizing the immense changes that have recently taken place in the conditions of popular music production, the Sage Handbook of Popular Music features contributions from many of the leading scholars in the field. Every chapter is well defined and to the point, with bibliographies that capture the history of the field. Authoritative, expertly organized and absolutely up-to-date, this collection will instantly become the backbone of many courses across the Anglophone world and is certain to be cited for years to come. 

The editors have enlisted a diverse cadre of contributors in terms of gender, profession, or stage in their academic careers, making for a refreshing reading experience when approaching the work straight through. Highly recommended. 

Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University and previously held academic positions in the UK and Canada. His areas of research specialism include youth culture, popular music scenes, history and heritage, local music industries, DIY culture and practice and qualitative research methods. He has written and edited numerous books including Popular Music and Youth Culture, Music, Style and Aging, British Progressive Pop 1970 1980 and Music Scenes (co-edited with Richard A. Peterson). He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) and a former Chair of the UK and Ireland IASPM branch. In 1999 he co-founded the British Sociological Association Youth Study Group. He is also a member of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) and former Editor in Chief of the Journal of Sociology. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology, an Adjunct of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Porto, an International Research Fellow of the Finnish Youth Research Network, a founding member of the Consortium for Youth, Generations and Culture and a founding member of the Regional Music Research Group. He is also co-founder of KISMIF, a biennial conference focusing on DIY cultures and practice. Steve Waksman is Professor of Music and American Studies at Smith College, Massachusetts, USA. His works include the books Instruments of Desire: The Electric Guitar and the Shaping of Musical Experience (Harvard University Press, 1999), and This Aint the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk (University of California Press, 2009), the latter of which was awarded the 2010 Woody Guthrie Award for best scholarly book on popular music by the US chapter of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. With Reebee Garofalo he co-authored the sixth edition of Rockin Out: Popular Music in the U.S.A. (Pearson, 2013). His essays have appeared in Guitar Cultures, The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar, Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop, and Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World. Currently he is researching a book on the cultural history of live music and performance in the US, tentatively titled Live Music in America: A History, 18502000.

Introduction by Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman Section 1: Theory and Method (Introduction by Andy Bennett) Kevin Dawe, The Many Worlds of Popular Music: Ethnomusicological Motti Regev, Notes on Sociological Theory and Popular Music Studies Gilbert B. Rodman, Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards: Mixing Pop, Politics Serge Lacasse, (Re)Generations of Popular Musicology Christine Feldman-Barratt, Archival Research and the Expansion of Popular Music Section 2: The Business of Popular Music (Introduction by Steve Waksman) Reebee Garofalo, Power, Production and the Pop Process Devon Powers, Intermediaries and Intermediation Matt Stahl, Popular Musical Labor in North America Timothy D. Taylor, Music in Advertising in the U.S.: History and Issues Section 3: Popular Music History (Introduction by Steve Waksman) Keir Keightley, Grinding out Hits at the Song Factory David Brackett, Popular Music Genres: Aesthetics, Commerce and Identity Matt Brennan, Live Music History Section 4: The Global and the Local (Introduction by Andy Bennett) Tony Mitchell, Observations on African, African-American, Middle Eastern Graham St. John, Electronic Dance Music Cultures, Ritualization and the Case Andy Brown, "Everything Louder than Everyone Else': The Origins andPersistence of Heavy Metal and Its Global Cultural Impact Ross Haenfler, Punk Rock Globalization Section 5: The Star System (Introduction by Steve Waksman) David Shumway, Rock Stars as Icons Philip Auslander, Everybody's in Show Biz: Performing Star Identity in Popular Music Jacqueline Warwick, Midnight Ramblers and Material Girls: Gender and Stardom in Rock and Pop C. Riley Snorton, Dark Cosmos: Making Race, Shaping Stardom Section 6: Body and Identity (Introduction by Andy Bennett) Sheila Whiteley, Blurred lines, gender and Popular Music Jon Stratton, Popular Music, Race and Identity Sherril Dodds, Dancing the Popular: The Expressive Interface of Bodies, Sound and Motion Catherine Strong, Shaping the Past of Popular music: Memory, Forgetting and Documenting Section 7: Media (Introduction by Andy Bennett) Simon Warner, In Print and On Screen: The Changing Character of Popular Music Journalism Tim Wall and Paul Long, Sight and Sound in Concert? The Interrelationship Between Music and Television Scott Henderson, Viewing with Your Ears, Listening With Your Eyes: Synching Popular Music and Cinema Nick Prior, Beyond Napster: Popular Music and the 'Normal' Internet Section 8: Technology (Introduction by Steve Waksman) Patrick Feaster, Phonography and the 'Recording' in Popular Music Peter Doyle, Ghosts of Electricity: Amplification Anahid Kassabian, Ubiquitous Musics: Technology, Listening, and Subjectivity Section 9: Digital Economies (Introduction by Steve Waksman) Tim Anderson, Modes of Production: The Value of Modal Analysis for Popular Music Studies Joanna Demers, Music, Copies and Essences Kembrew McLeod, Authorship, Ownership, and Musical Appropriation Aram Sinnreich, Music Cartels and the Dematerialization of Power