The sociology of rock (Communication and society)

Politics & Social Sciences

FRITH, Simon

Social Sciences

Constable

An academic study of the sociology of rock looks at the roots of the musical form, the social importance and power of rock as reflected in the music industry itself, and the relationship between rock music and its consumers

Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll (Communication & Society)

Arts & Photography

Music

Who's better? Billie Holiday or P.J. Harvey? Blur or Oasis? Dylan or Keats? And how many friendships have ridden on the answer? Such questions aren't merely the stuff of fanzines and idle talk; they inform our most passionate arguments, distil our most deeply held values, make meaning of our ever-changing culture. In Performing Rites, one of the most influential writers on popular music asks what we talk about when we talk about music. What's good, what's bad? What's high, what's low? Why do such distinctions matter? Instead of dismissing emotional response and personal taste as inaccessible to the academic critic, Simon Frith takes these forms of engagement as his subject and discloses their place at the very centre of the aesthetics that structure our culture and colour our lives. Taking up hundreds of songs and writers, Frith insists on acts of evaluation of popular music as music. Ranging through and beyond the twentieth century, Performing Rites puts the Pet Shop Boys and Puccini, rhythm and lyric, voice and technology, into a dialogue about the undeniable impact of poplar aesthetics on our lives. How we nod our heads or tap our feet, grin or grimace or flip the dial; how we determine what's sublime and what's for real - these are part of the way we construct our social identities, and an essential response to the performance of all music. Frith argues that listening itself is a performance, both social gesture and bodily response. From how they are made to how they are received, popular songs appear here as not only meriting aesthetic judgements but also demanding them, and shaping our understanding of what all music means.

Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music

Oxford University Press

What is it that makes us nod our head in time with the rhythm, tap our feet, grin, grimace, flip the dial? What is it that makes music "good" and what leads us to make these myriad critical decisions about popular culture each day? This text considers these questions and seeks to uncover the meaning which is manufactured by popular music. From Toscanini to the Pet Shop Boys, "Performing Rites" ranges over and beyond popular music in its exploration of the influence of popular aesthetics. Value judgements are made constantly in all our life-decisions, monumental and mundane, intellectual and apathetic. Simon Frith seeks the root of these decisions which inform our apprehensions of the very culture we daily construct.

Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music

Oxford Univ. Pr.

On Record: Rock, Pop and the Written Word

Classic sociological analyses of 'deviance' and rebellion; studies of technology; subcultural and feminist readings, semiotic and musicological essays and close readings of stars, bands and the fans themselves by Adorno, Barthes and other well-known contributors

On Record

Goodwin, Andrew

Routledge

The History of Live Music in Britain, Volume II, 1968-1984 (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

To date, there has been a significant gap in work on the social history of music in Britain from 1950 to the present day. The three volumes of Live Music in Britain address this gap and do so through a unique prism―that of live music. The key theme of the books is the changing nature of the live music industry in the UK, focused upon popular music but including all musical genres. Via this focus, the books offer new insights into a number of other areas, including the relationship between commercial and public funding of music, changing musical fashions and tastes, the impact of changing technologies, the changing balance of power within the music industries, the role of the state in regulating and promoting various musical activities within an increasingly globalised music economy, and the effects of demographic and other social changes on music culture. Drawing on new archival research, a wide range of academic and non-academic secondary sources, participant observation and a series of interviews with key personnel, the books have the potential to become landmark works within Popular Music Studies and broader cultural history. The second volume covers the period from Hyde Park to the Hacienda (1968–84).

The History of Live Music in Britain, Volume II, 1968-1984: From Hyde Park to the Hacienda (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

Sound Effects

Pantheon Books

A collection of essays exploring popular culture and its relationship to rock music, which discusses such subjects as the rationale behind Hit Parade radio, black and white "crossover" music, the packaging of pop as a commodity, and how pop music shapes teenage identity and sexuality.

FACING THE MUSIC

Pantheon

Essays discuss various critical approaches to the study of rock and popular music, and looks at the music business, the creative process, music and sexuality, and the star system

ON RECORD: POP AND ROCK

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FRITH, Simon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by FRITH, Simon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FRITH, Simon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The sociology of rock (Communication and society)

The sociology of rock (Communication and society)

Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock 'n' Roll (Communication & Society)

Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music

Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music

On Record

The History of Live Music in Britain, Volume II, 1968-1984: From Hyde Park to the Hacienda (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)

Sound Effects

FACING THE MUSIC

ON RECORD: POP AND ROCK