The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies
Published on 9. July 2025
752 pages
978-1-83595-104-0 (ISBN)
Description
The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies provides a comprehensive overview of methodological approaches within the field of popular music studies. Alongside contributions from key thinkers already established in popular music studies, the strength of the collection lies in its inclusion of many new and emerging writers in the field. Therefore, the collection incorporates a wide range of practitioners, pedagogues and academics from an extensive range of disciplines, and thus drawing from a diversity of methodological approaches. These include those that are perhaps more established, such as semiotics, ethnography and psychology, alongside exciting new approaches within popular music, including eco-musicology, religion, intersectionality and archeology. Although previous books have provided an overall of concepts studied within popular music studies, this will be the first comprehensive Handbook of popular music methodologies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Intellect
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Reflowable
Illustrations
30 Halftones, black and white
File size
12,87 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-83595-104-0 (9781835951040)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Mike Dines | Shara Rambarran | Gareth Dylan Smith
The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies
Book
06/2025
Intellect Books
€202.20
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Persons
Mike Dines is a British musician, writer, scholar and publisher. As co-founder, and Chair, of the Punk Scholars Network, Mike has published widely in the field of punk (specifically the sub-genre Krishnacore), subcultures (specifically the New Age traveller Movement), popular music and spirituality.
Shara Rambarran, author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era, ?is a musicologist and senior lecturer in music, business and media at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research interests include music innovation, virtuality/digital cultures, technology, remixology, music production, audio-visual aesthetics, music/creative industries, music education, and law. She is the co-editor of?The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality,?The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, and?DIVA: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, and is involved with the Art of Record Production conferences and journal. Shara is also the musicologist for Spotify's award-winning?Decode?music podcast.
Gareth Dylan Smith is Assistant Professor of Music and Music Education at Boston University. His first love is to play drums, and his writing and research interests include drumming, punk pedagogy, popular music education and the sociology of music education.
Shara Rambarran, author of Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era, ?is a musicologist and senior lecturer in music, business and media at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research interests include music innovation, virtuality/digital cultures, technology, remixology, music production, audio-visual aesthetics, music/creative industries, music education, and law. She is the co-editor of?The Oxford Handbook of Music and Virtuality,?The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music Education, and?DIVA: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, and is involved with the Art of Record Production conferences and journal. Shara is also the musicologist for Spotify's award-winning?Decode?music podcast.
Gareth Dylan Smith is Assistant Professor of Music and Music Education at Boston University. His first love is to play drums, and his writing and research interests include drumming, punk pedagogy, popular music education and the sociology of music education.
Content
Foreword
Derek B. Scott
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Mapping the Field: Explorations in the Study of Popular Music
Shara Rambarran, Mike Dines and Gareth Dylan Smith
PART ONE: FOUNDATIONAL APPROACHES TOWARDS A MUSICOLOGY OF POPULAR MUSIC
1. Critical Popular Music Studies: Interrogating the Methodological Meanings and Discursive Politics of 'Critical' and 'Popular'
Runchao Liu and Jessica A. Schwartz
2. Methods for the Twenty-First Century: Artistic Research as a New Research Paradigm in Popular Music Studies
Michael Kahr and Wolf-Georg Zaddach
3. Theorizing Aesthetics in a Practical Musicology
Simon Zagorski-Thomas
4. Biographical Method and Interview as Techniques in Brazilian Communication and Music Studies
Caroline Govari and Adriana Amaral
5. Beyond Popular Song: Analysing Persona-Environment Relationships in Contemporary Musical Theatre
Nick Braae
6. The Cultural Imagination and Its Role in Researching Popular Music
Eleftherios Zenerian
7. Semiotics as a Mode of Popular Music Analysis and Interpretation
Brian Andrew Inglis
8. Form and Function: Deconstructing Music Graphics
Russ Bestley
PART TWO: BACK TO THE FUTURE: ARTEFACTS, ARCHAEOLOGY, ARCHIVE AND HERITAGE
9. Do-It-Together: Punk Methodologies for Researching the Heritage of Popular Music
Sarah Baker, Zelmarie Cantillon, Jennifer Chubb, Paul Graves-Brown, Suzy Harrison, Brett Lashua, Liam Maloney, Jack McNeill, Raphael Nowak, Hilary Orange, Yorgos Paschos, John Schofield and Aleen Stanton
10. Records, Subjects and Agents: Exploring Archives of Popular Music through Critical Archival Studies
Kirsty Fife
11. Issues in US Forensic Musicological Analysis of Popular Music
Dana DeVlieger
12. The Cover-Version Spectrum: Reframing the Relationship between Imitation and Transformation in Pop-Punk Cover-Versions
Rob Upton
13. Digging in the Takes: Using Archaeological Approaches to Study Popular Music History
Paul Thompson and Barkley McKay
14. Focused Musical Artefact Analysis
Carsten Wernicke and Michael Ahlers
PART THREE: EXPLORING ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES IN POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES
15. Adele Clarke's Situational Analysis and Its Potential for Popular Music Studies
Daniel Suer and Florian Heesch
16. Cosmopolitan Hubs: Glocalization and Non-Native Culture
Brokers in the Globalization of Popular Music Cultures
Tenley Martin
17. Art Gallery Drum Kit Solos, Spirituality and Practical Musicology
Gareth Dylan Smith
18. Ethnographic Methods and Ethics for Online Cultures of Popular Music
Raquel Campos Valverde
19. Internet Pop Reception as Sonic Autoethnography: Circulating Music, Story and Self Online
Iain Findlay-Walsh
PART FOUR: SEXUALITY, RACE AND INTERSECTIONALITY IN THE STUDY OF POPULAR MUSIC
20. Is It Drag? Trans Perspectives on Queering Popular Music Research
Sadie Hochman-Ruiz
21. Staying in the Field: Emotional Labour and Trauma in Popular Music Ethnography
Ryan J. Lambe
22. Representing Power through China Wind Music: The Soft and Hard Masculinities of the Nation
Na Li
23. The Conferralist Framework: Method and Application in Popular Music Studies
Hussein Boon
24. When 'Up for It' Is Not for Everyone: From Content Analysis to the Music Analysis of Sexualization Model (MAS-Model): An Approximation of Contemporary Music from a Decolonial Lens
Priscila Alvarez-Cueva
PART FIVE: APPROACHES TOWARDS A POPULAR MUSIC PEDAGOGY
25. Person-Centred Popular Music Education: Negotiating Gender, Community and Industry Expectations
Sini Timonen
26. Popular Music Education Methodologies in the United States: An Overview
Bryan Powell
27. Process-Based Pedagogies for Creative Practice Studies
Chris Whiting
28. Reflective Piano Pedagogy: Improvisation and Composition in Classical and Contemporary Repertoires
Alethea de Villiers
29. Popular Music Production: Rethinking Recording Studio Labels
Pat O'Grady
PART SIX: POPULAR MUSIC AND CONNECTEDNESS: RECOVERY STUDIES, MUSIC AUDIENCES AND SPIRITUALITY
30. Exploring Post-Subcultural Participation through a Practice-Centred Approach: The Case of the Vaporwave (Virtual) Scene
Simone Tosoni and Alessandro Ricotti
31. Recovery Studies and Pop Musicology: The Twelve Steps as Lyrical, Visual and Sonic Rhetoric
Adam J. Goldwyn
32. When Is a Music Audience? The Challenges of a Sociological Perspective of Music Audiences in the Platform Age
Jo Haynes and Raphael Nowak
33. Studying Religion and Popular Music
Marcus Moberg and Christopher Partridge
34. In Search of Krishna: Narrative Enquiry and the Trajectory of the Spiritual in Krishnacore
Mike Dines
PART SEVEN: THINKING AHEAD: EMERGING METHODOLOGIES IN POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES
35. Confronting Climate Change in Popular Music Texts: Nostalgia, Apocalypse, Utopia
Tore Storvold
36. Do Meat-Eaters Dream of Vengeful Sheep? Towards a Methodology for Animal-Oriented Music Criticism
Marc Brooks
37. An Ecosemiotic Approach to the Analysis of Timbre
Maria Perevedentseva
38. Research Methods in Live Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Performance
Kirsten Hermes
39. Technology, Creativity and Pop Music Production: The Case of Cantopop
Hon-Lun Helan Yang and Edmond Tsang Yik-Man
40. Studying Playlist Cultures with Qualitative Digital Methods
Alessandro Gandini and Maurizio Corbella
41. Popular Music in Esports, On and Beyond the Stage
Eulalia Febrer-Coll
Notes on Contributors
Index
Derek B. Scott
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Mapping the Field: Explorations in the Study of Popular Music
Shara Rambarran, Mike Dines and Gareth Dylan Smith
PART ONE: FOUNDATIONAL APPROACHES TOWARDS A MUSICOLOGY OF POPULAR MUSIC
1. Critical Popular Music Studies: Interrogating the Methodological Meanings and Discursive Politics of 'Critical' and 'Popular'
Runchao Liu and Jessica A. Schwartz
2. Methods for the Twenty-First Century: Artistic Research as a New Research Paradigm in Popular Music Studies
Michael Kahr and Wolf-Georg Zaddach
3. Theorizing Aesthetics in a Practical Musicology
Simon Zagorski-Thomas
4. Biographical Method and Interview as Techniques in Brazilian Communication and Music Studies
Caroline Govari and Adriana Amaral
5. Beyond Popular Song: Analysing Persona-Environment Relationships in Contemporary Musical Theatre
Nick Braae
6. The Cultural Imagination and Its Role in Researching Popular Music
Eleftherios Zenerian
7. Semiotics as a Mode of Popular Music Analysis and Interpretation
Brian Andrew Inglis
8. Form and Function: Deconstructing Music Graphics
Russ Bestley
PART TWO: BACK TO THE FUTURE: ARTEFACTS, ARCHAEOLOGY, ARCHIVE AND HERITAGE
9. Do-It-Together: Punk Methodologies for Researching the Heritage of Popular Music
Sarah Baker, Zelmarie Cantillon, Jennifer Chubb, Paul Graves-Brown, Suzy Harrison, Brett Lashua, Liam Maloney, Jack McNeill, Raphael Nowak, Hilary Orange, Yorgos Paschos, John Schofield and Aleen Stanton
10. Records, Subjects and Agents: Exploring Archives of Popular Music through Critical Archival Studies
Kirsty Fife
11. Issues in US Forensic Musicological Analysis of Popular Music
Dana DeVlieger
12. The Cover-Version Spectrum: Reframing the Relationship between Imitation and Transformation in Pop-Punk Cover-Versions
Rob Upton
13. Digging in the Takes: Using Archaeological Approaches to Study Popular Music History
Paul Thompson and Barkley McKay
14. Focused Musical Artefact Analysis
Carsten Wernicke and Michael Ahlers
PART THREE: EXPLORING ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACHES IN POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES
15. Adele Clarke's Situational Analysis and Its Potential for Popular Music Studies
Daniel Suer and Florian Heesch
16. Cosmopolitan Hubs: Glocalization and Non-Native Culture
Brokers in the Globalization of Popular Music Cultures
Tenley Martin
17. Art Gallery Drum Kit Solos, Spirituality and Practical Musicology
Gareth Dylan Smith
18. Ethnographic Methods and Ethics for Online Cultures of Popular Music
Raquel Campos Valverde
19. Internet Pop Reception as Sonic Autoethnography: Circulating Music, Story and Self Online
Iain Findlay-Walsh
PART FOUR: SEXUALITY, RACE AND INTERSECTIONALITY IN THE STUDY OF POPULAR MUSIC
20. Is It Drag? Trans Perspectives on Queering Popular Music Research
Sadie Hochman-Ruiz
21. Staying in the Field: Emotional Labour and Trauma in Popular Music Ethnography
Ryan J. Lambe
22. Representing Power through China Wind Music: The Soft and Hard Masculinities of the Nation
Na Li
23. The Conferralist Framework: Method and Application in Popular Music Studies
Hussein Boon
24. When 'Up for It' Is Not for Everyone: From Content Analysis to the Music Analysis of Sexualization Model (MAS-Model): An Approximation of Contemporary Music from a Decolonial Lens
Priscila Alvarez-Cueva
PART FIVE: APPROACHES TOWARDS A POPULAR MUSIC PEDAGOGY
25. Person-Centred Popular Music Education: Negotiating Gender, Community and Industry Expectations
Sini Timonen
26. Popular Music Education Methodologies in the United States: An Overview
Bryan Powell
27. Process-Based Pedagogies for Creative Practice Studies
Chris Whiting
28. Reflective Piano Pedagogy: Improvisation and Composition in Classical and Contemporary Repertoires
Alethea de Villiers
29. Popular Music Production: Rethinking Recording Studio Labels
Pat O'Grady
PART SIX: POPULAR MUSIC AND CONNECTEDNESS: RECOVERY STUDIES, MUSIC AUDIENCES AND SPIRITUALITY
30. Exploring Post-Subcultural Participation through a Practice-Centred Approach: The Case of the Vaporwave (Virtual) Scene
Simone Tosoni and Alessandro Ricotti
31. Recovery Studies and Pop Musicology: The Twelve Steps as Lyrical, Visual and Sonic Rhetoric
Adam J. Goldwyn
32. When Is a Music Audience? The Challenges of a Sociological Perspective of Music Audiences in the Platform Age
Jo Haynes and Raphael Nowak
33. Studying Religion and Popular Music
Marcus Moberg and Christopher Partridge
34. In Search of Krishna: Narrative Enquiry and the Trajectory of the Spiritual in Krishnacore
Mike Dines
PART SEVEN: THINKING AHEAD: EMERGING METHODOLOGIES IN POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES
35. Confronting Climate Change in Popular Music Texts: Nostalgia, Apocalypse, Utopia
Tore Storvold
36. Do Meat-Eaters Dream of Vengeful Sheep? Towards a Methodology for Animal-Oriented Music Criticism
Marc Brooks
37. An Ecosemiotic Approach to the Analysis of Timbre
Maria Perevedentseva
38. Research Methods in Live Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Performance
Kirsten Hermes
39. Technology, Creativity and Pop Music Production: The Case of Cantopop
Hon-Lun Helan Yang and Edmond Tsang Yik-Man
40. Studying Playlist Cultures with Qualitative Digital Methods
Alessandro Gandini and Maurizio Corbella
41. Popular Music in Esports, On and Beyond the Stage
Eulalia Febrer-Coll
Notes on Contributors
Index
