Do the stars know why they shine? An argument for including cultural theory on popular music programmes

Hooper, E (2017) 'Do the stars know why they shine? An argument for including cultural theory on popular music programmes.' In: Smith, G.D, Moir, Z, Brennan, M, Rambarran, S and Kirkman, P, eds. The Routledge research companion to popular music education. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 153-165. ISBN 9781472464989

Abstract

The cultural landscape of popular and commercial music is vibrant, vast and interdisciplinary. Its nature, connected as it is with the world through many methods and media from mainstream radio to television adverts to film scores and beyond, is one that exists within culture in a distinctly contextualized way. The result is that, in its scholarly and pedagogical forms, there are myriad areas to explore within popular and commercial music, from history to gender theory to new formal analyses to literary theory... many of which are recent or yet-uncharted territories within the larger school of traditional musicology. In light of this, this chapter puts forward the argument for the necessary inclusion of cultural studies within popular music curriculums, arguing that, in order to fully and fairly analyse “Popular Music”, students and academics alike must take time to consider the connotations of the heavily-laden term “Popular” itself, imbued as it is with the above-mentioned critical context. I argue that this is the true distinction of our field of study: an charged and current space for discovery, discussion and dissemination of inextricable links between contemporaneous culture and context. Popular music, in many ways, is a mirror of the society from which it stems; this chapter makes a case that, within a pedagogical context, the two should not, and, indeed, cannot, be separated.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology M Music and Books on Music > M Music M Music and Books on Music > MT Musical instruction and study
Divisions:	Bath School of Music and Performing Arts
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2015 16:41
Last Modified:	15 Aug 2021 09:39
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/5589

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