Popular music matters : essays in honour of Simon Frith

Simon Frith has been one of the most important figures in the emergence and subsequent development of popular music studies. The contributions to this volume of essays and memoirs seek to honour his achievements, but they are not merely ‘about Frith’. The focus on ‘sociology and industry’ and ‘aesthetics and values’ reflect major themes in Frith’s own work, which can also be found within popular music studies more generally. Contents: Part 1 Sociology and Industry: Too posh to rock? The exposure of class in popular music, Barbara Bradby; ‘Nobody expects to be paid…nobody asks, “What is the fee?”’: making a living from music in a time of economic crisis - the Icelandic experience, Sarah Baker; Revisiting ‘Music Industry Research’: what changed? What didn’t?, Michael L. Jones; W(h)ither now? Music collecting in the age of the Cloud, Lee Marshall. Part 2 Frith and his Career: A double life with low theory: notes toward a professional and intellectual biography, Dave Laing; Short takes, Jon Savage, Karen Lury, Kevin Milburn, Sarah Thornton; ‘You can’t not be political’: Frith, politics and policy, Martin Cloonan; Rock and role playing: sociological themes in the work of Simon Frith, Peter J. Martin; Simon Frith: crossover critic, Ulf Lindberg, Gestur Gudmundsson, Morten Michelsen and Hans Weisethaunet. Part 3 Aesthetics and Value: ‘Not the sort of thing you could photocopy’: a short idea history of notation with suggestions for reform in music education and research, Philip Tagg; Playing, performing, listening: making music - or making music act?, Antoine Hennion, translated by Margaret Rigaud-Drayton; Awards, prizes and popular taste: organising the judgement of music, John Street; More than a performance: song lyrics and the practices of songwriting, Pete Astor and Keith Negus; The decline (and perhaps the fall) of rock, pop and soul, Jason Toynbee.
Boekbespreking in Boekman.27(2015)102(voorjaar.62-63)