Popular Music Genres

An accessible introduction to the study of popular music, this book takes a schematic approach to a range of popular music genres, and examines them in terms of their antecedents, histories, visual aesthetics, and sociopolitical contexts. Within this interdisciplinary and genre-based focus, readers will gain insights into the relationships between popular music, cultural history, economics, politics, iconography, production techniques, technology, marketing, and musical structure.

Stuart Borthwick and Ron Moy are both lecturers at Liverpool's John Moores University. For the past ten years, they have devoted themselves to the delivery of a range of undergraduate courses, and now run a degree program in Popular Music Studies.

Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Soul: from gospel to groove -- 2 Funk: the breakbeat starts here -- 3 Psychedelia: in my mind's eye -- 4 Progressive rock: breaking the blues' lineage -- 5 Punk rock: artifice or authenticity? -- 6 Reggae: the aesthetic logic of a diasporan culture -- 7 Synthpop: into the digital age -- 8 Heavy metal: noise for the boys? -- 9 Rap: the word, rhythm and rhyme -- 10 Indie: the politics of production and distribution -- 11 Jungle: the breakbeat's revenge -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.