Books in the Music and Society series

This book tells the history of the London black music culture that emerged in post-colonial London at the end of the twentieth century; the people who made it, the racial and spatial politics of its development and change, and the part it played in founding London's precious, embattled multiculture. -- .

This study explores a wide range of Victorian and Edwardian musical life including brass bands, choral societies, music hall and popular concerts, and analyzes the way in which popular cultural practice was shaped by, and in turn, helped shape social and economic structures.

In this, the first academic text devoted to The Smiths, writers from a range of perspectives set out to consider the cultural significance and enduring appeal of one of the most influential and controversial bands of recent decades. -- .

In this, the first academic text devoted to The Smiths, writers from a range of perspectives set out to consider the cultural significance and enduring appeal of one of the most influential and controversial bands of recent decades. -- .

At a time when the 'social' analysis of music is receiving unprecedented attention, this important new book demonstrates ways in which sociological ideas can make a distinct contribution to understanding music. In doing so, it also highlights the contrasts between a sociological perspective and those emanating from cultural studies and musicology.

This book examines the birth of punk in the UK and its transformation, within a short period of time, into post-punk. Deploying innovative concepts of 'critical mass', 'social networks' and 'music worlds', and using sophisticated techniques of 'social network analysis', it teases out the events and mechanisms involved in punk's 'micro-mobilisation', its diffusion across the UK and its transformation in certain city-based strongholds into a variety of interlocking post-punk forms. Nick Crossley offers a detailed review of prior work in this area, a rich exploration of new empirical data and a highly innovative and robust approach to the study of 'music worlds'. Written in an accessible style, this book is essential reading for anybody with an interest in either UK punk and post-punk or the impact of social networks on cultural life and the potential of social network analysis to explore this impact.