Media Narratives in Popular Music

The historical significance of music-makers, music scenes, and music genres has long been mediated through academic and popular press publications such as magazines, films, and television documentaries. Media Narratives in Popular Music examines these various publications and questions how and why they are constructed. It considers the typically linear narratives that are based on simplifications, exaggerations, and omissions and the histories they construct - an approach that leads to totalizing "official" histories that reduce otherwise messy narratives to one-dimensional interpretations of a heroic and celebratory nature. This book questions the basis on which these mediated histories are constructed, highlights other, hidden, histories that have otherwise been neglected, and explores a range of topics including consumerism, the production pressure behind documentaries, punk fanzines, Rolling Stones covers, and more.

Chris Anderton is Associate Professor in Cultural Economy at Solent University, UK. He has published on a variety of topics including the recorded and live music industries, music festivals, music history, music culture, music marketing, music cities, event management, and the intersection of fan practices and intellectual property law. He is the author of Music Festivals in the UK: Beyond the Carnivalesque (2019) and co-author of both Understanding the Music Industries (2013) and Music Management, Marketing and PR: Creating Connections and Conversations (in press). He is also co-editor of Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals (in press). Martin James is Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries at Solent University, UK. His areas of specialist interest include music journalism and the music press, music and cultural cities, and late twentieth-century alternative music; specifically punk, post punk and electronic musics. Martin's publications have focused on hidden histories in the mediated narratives of popular music. He is author of several critically acclaimed books about music, including French Connections: From Discotheque to Discovery (2003), State of Bass: Jungle - The Story So Far (1997; 2020) and co-authored Understanding the Music Industries (2013).

List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction Chris Anderton and Martin James (Solent University, UK) SECTION 1 - Narratives of Identity 1. Hidden in Plain Sight: Stories of Gender, Generation and Political Economy on the Northern Soul Scene Tim Wall (Birmingham City University, UK) and Sarah Raine (Edinburgh Napier University, UK) 2. Paid My Dues: Key Debates in the 1970s Feminist Music Press Ann-Marie Hanlon (Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland) 3. "They're Not In It Like The Man Dem": How Gendered Narratives Contradict Patriarchal Discourse in Electronic Dance Music Julia Toppin (University of Hertfordshire, UK) 4. "Who Controls the Present Controls the Past. Who Controls the Past Controls the Future": Washing Islam from the Media Narratives of Hip-Hop Martin James (Solent University, UK) SECTION 2 - Narratives of Genre 5. "Exiles in Madison Square Garden": Critical Reception and Journalistic Narratives of Progressive Rock in Melody Maker Magazine, 1971-1976 Chris Anderton (Solent University, UK) 6. Alternative Before Alternative: The Pre-Punk History of a '90s Genre Theo Cateforis (Syracuse University, USA) 7. Never Mind the B., Here's Three Minutes of Prog: Rethinking Punk's Impact on Progressive Rock in Britain During the Late 1970s Andy Bennett (Griffith University, Australia) 8. "There's a Crack in the Union Jack." Questioning National Identity in the 1990s: the Britpop Counter-narrative Johnny Hopkins (Solent University, UK) SECTION 3 - Narratives Constructed 9. Compromised Histories: The Impact of Production Pressures on the Construction of Historical Narratives in Popular Music Documentaries Lauren Istvandity (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia), Sarah Baker (Griffith University, Australia), Zelmarie Cantillon (Western Sydney University, Australia) and Shane Homan (Monash University, Australia) 10. When a History of Gender Representation Meets the Nostalgic Storytelling of Hot Press Magazine Yvonne Kiely (Independent Scholar, Ireland) 11. Punk Fanzines, Subcultural Consecration, and Hidden Female Histories in Early British Punk Karen Fournier (University of Michigan, USA) 12. Tales from the Turntables: "Narrating" and "Narrativizing" the "First Club DJ" Maren Hancock (York University, Canada) Acknowledgments Index