Description
Book SynopsisPop music and rock music are often treated as separate genres but the distinction has always been blurred. Motti Regev argues that pop-rock is best understood as a single musical form defined by the use of electric and electronic instruments, amplification and related techniques.
Trade Review"Spirited, thought-provoking and replete with original perspectives that use music as a prism for understanding cultural politics and cross-border impact on traditional art forms."
The Hindu
"A very fine piece of work, which makes an original contribution both to our understanding of popular music and to our understanding of the global cultural order. It provides a new perspective on how sounds are produced, circulated and experienced."
John Street, University of East Anglia
"In this highly original book, Professor Regev considers how exploring pop-rock both taps and enriches sociological theory. Regev�s study is both empirically nuanced and theoretically sophisticated. It illuminates music as a fundamental and dynamic material of social life. As Regev shows, pop-rock�s emergence is nothing less than the re-figuration of world culture."
Tia DeNora, Exeter University
"Motti Regev expertly provides a much needed take on pop-rock, the field(s) in which it is produced and enjoyed, and its global diffusion. He uses the case of pop-rock to cast empirical light on aesthetic cosmopolitanism and artistic legitimation. The result is a book that is highly informative and refreshingly engaging."
Professor Timothy Dowd, Emory University
"This is an exceedingly important book. It really does move the fields of music and sociology on by showing how the figurative musical world we live in today is literally a musical world."
Journal of World Popular Music
Table of ContentsPreface vii
1 Theories and Concepts 1
Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism: A Theoretical Framework 4
Characterizing Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism 6
Theoretical Framework 9
Rock, Pop, and Popular Music 17
Structure of the Book 23
Methodological Note 26
2 Expressive Isomorphism 28
Pop-Rock Styles and Genres 32
Pop-Rock Divas 33
Rock Auteurs 35
Progressive Rock 37
Punk and Metal 38
Electronic Dance Music 40
Hip-Hop 41
Ethnic Rock/New Folk 43
Dominance of the Musical Public Sphere 46
Legitimation Discourse 50
Ritual Classification: Tradition vs. Pop-Rock 52
Ritual Periodization: The “Birth of Rock” 54
3 A Field of Cultural Production 57
Working of the Field 59
Production of Meaning 61
Pop-Rock’s Ideology of Art 65
Mechanisms of Change and Innovation 75
Avant-Gardism 76
Commercialism 78
The Spiral of Expansion 80
Structure of the Field 83
National (Sub-) Fields of Pop-Rock Music 87
4 Long-Term Event of Pop-Rockization 91
Events 93
The Musical Event 95
The Historical Musical Event of Pop-Rock 96
Agency 97
Early “Pre-History” 106
Consecrated Beginning 108
Consolidation and Rise to Dominance 113
Diversification, Internationalization, Glorification 117
5 Aesthetic Cultures 123
Subcultural Scenes to Aesthetic Cultures 126
Aesthetic Cultures 129
Forms of Pop-Rock Knowledge 131
Early Participation 133
Global Microstructures 136
Internet Platforms 138
The Pop-Rock Intelligentsia 142
Indie/Alternative Pop-Rock 142
Alternative Pop-Rock on the Web 146
An Extended Case: Israeli Cognoscenti 148
6 Sonic Vocabularies, Spaces, and Bodies 158
Sonic Vocabularies 161
Tones and Timbres 162
Museme Stacks and Strings 165
Global Electro-Amplified Soundscapes 168
Aesthetic Cosmopolitan Bodies 172
Actants of Intercultural Phenomenological Proximity 177
References 180
Index 195
