British Journal of Music Education

http://journals.cambridge.org/BME
Additional services for British

Journal of Music Education:

Email alerts: Click here

Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here

What is Popular Music Studies? Some observations

Martin Cloonan
British Journal of Music Education / Volume 22 / Issue 01 / March 2005, pp 77 - 93
DOI: 10.1017/S026505170400600X, Published online: 30 March 2005

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S026505170400600X

How to cite this article:
Martin Cloonan (2005). What is Popular Music Studies? Some observations. British Journal of
Music Education, 22, pp 77-93 doi:10.1017/S026505170400600X
Request Permissions : Click here

Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/BME, IP address: 132.229.187.94 on 27 Nov 2013

C 2005 Cambridge University Press

Copyright

B. J. Music Ed. 2005 22:1, 7793

doi:10.1017/S026505170400600X

What is Popular Music Studies? Some observations

Martin Cloonan

Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow, St Andrews Building,

11 Eldon Street, Glasgow, G3 6NE
m.cloonan@educ.gla.ac.uk

Popular Music Studies (PMS) is now taught in over 20 higher education institutions (HEIs)
in the UK and numerous others across the world. This article outlines the constituent parts
of PMS in the UK and questions its status as a discipline in its own right. It concludes by
arguing that, having established itself, PMS will need to deal with two key pressures in
modern academic life those of conducting research and widening participation. In the
former instance, PMS might have to be pragmatic, in the latter lies potential for radicalism.

Introduction
There is an inherent problem with rock music education. While classical music might
be suited to the structured format of universities, can you really learn how to rock like
The Strokes by sitting in a lecture theatre? (Johnstone, 2003)

The above quote, from the popular music magazine New Musical Express NME , is just one
example of media scepticism about the value of Popular Music Studies (PMS). Another
came on 23 January 2004, when UK higher educations in-house journal, the Times
Higher Education Supplement (THES), took the opportunity provided by an upcoming
parliamentary debate on undergraduate tuition fees to raise the question of fees for courses
which appeared to be examples of dumbing down (Tysome, 2004). Amongst those called
upon to defend their subject area was Professor Sheila Whiteley, Chair of Popular Music at
the University of Salford.
While such attacks have a longer lineage linked to the dismissal of popular music
itself (cf. Johnson, 1964), they came at a time when its academic study was becoming
increasingly popular. As the THES attacked, the Universities Central Admission Services
(UCAS) Student Guide 2004 listed 18 institutions across the UK (from a list of over 300
providers) as having degree programmes in PMS. Closer inspection revealed that the same
subject area is listed in other places under headings such as Commercial Music (Universities
of Paisley and Westminster and Bath Spa University College), Popular and Contemporary
Music (University of Newcastle), Music Culture (University of East London) and Jazz Studies
(University of Exeter). In addition, PMS modules can be found in many parts of the arts and
social sciences, including places such as the Department of Adult and Continuing Education
at the University of Glasgow, the Department of Continuing Education at Liverpool, Film
and Media Studies at Stirling, Politics at the University of East Anglia, American Studies at
Lancaster (Arnot, 2000) and the Department of Communication and Information Studies at
Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh.

77

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

All this activity raises several points of interest, including: What is studied in such
courses, and how? What should be studied and how? In whose interest are current studies
taking place? What is the relationship between such courses, the music industries and
broader academic trends? The rest of this article will address these questions and illustrate
some of the challenges facing PMS in the UK during the era of lifelong learning. I begin,
however, with some historical perspective.
PMS in the UK: a short history

This section concentrates on the development of PMS in the UK. This is not meant to imply
that studies from elsewhere are unimportant. On the contrary, the history of modern popular
music, and its subsequent study, derives from the United States and the arrival of rock and
roll into the national consciousness in the mid-1950s. In addition, a number of pioneering
academic studies of popular music and musicians emerged from the US (cf. Hirsch, 1970;
Peterson & Berger, 1975; Chapple & Garofalo, 1977; Hamm, 1983). Moreover, some of
the most exciting contemporary developments in PMS come from the non-Anglophone
world.
However, my analysis here is concentrated on the UK where, in retrospect, it can be
seen that PMS had something of a head start due to the pioneering work of the Centre
for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham, which from
its inception in 1963 legitimised the study of popular culture within UK academe. As the
study of the culture of everyday life was furthered by the CCCS, so a medium which was a
key part of that life popular music also increasingly came to be studied.
The development of PMS has been traced in other places (cf. Green, 2002; Griffiths,
1999; Hesmondhalgh & Negus, 2002) and its results are still highly contested (see
Grossberg, 2002 and Frith, 2004). Early academic interjections often centred on the
problems of teaching popular music in schools (cf. Swanwick, 1968; Vulliamy & Lee,
1976). However, by the mid-1990s the place of PMS in higher education was being keenly
debated.1 I deal with the nature of PMS in more detail below but wish to note here that the
term Popular Music Studies is not unproblematic. However, it now has a wide currency
(cf. Grossberg, 2002; Hesmondhalgh & Negus, 2002; Frith, 2004), and my intention here
is to highlight the breadth of such courses in UK higher education and to outline some of
the developments that brought them about.
Unsurprisingly, the development of PMS is inextricably linked to the rise of popular
music itself. Thus the origins of PMS in the UK can be traced back to the 1960s and the rise
of The Beatles. What is important in this context is that the band attracted the attention of
intellectuals in ways previously unseen in the history of UK popular music. In this case one
initial reaction to The Beatles was horror at their appeal and impact on an audience,
famously characterised as having Huge faces bloated with cheap confectionery and
smeared with chainstore makeup . . . sagging mouths and glazed eyes (Johnson, 1964: 326).
However, other intellectuals have embraced popular culture in general and, increasingly,
popular music in particular. In the case of The Beatles there are three important examples
of this. First, the music editor of The Times, William Mann, reviewed the band (albeit
anonymously) in terms associated with the critical language of classical musicology (Mann,
1963); second, they were reviewed for The Listener by Deryck Cooke (1968); and third,

78

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

another eminent musicologist, Wilfrid Mellers,2 wrote about them memorably in his book
Twilight of the Gods (Mellers, 1973).
Via such attempts classical musicology staked a claim to be an integral part of the
academic study of popular music and what was to become PMS. However, the relationship
between classical musicology and popular music was fraught with difficulty and has been
much commented upon (cf. McClary & Walser, 1990; Middleton, 1990, 2002; Moore,
2001). At its core was the problem that a methodology based on notation and assessment
of music on the printed page is ill equipped to deal with a medium in which notation plays
little or no part, where the sounds of musicians (such as James Browns whoops) are more
important than the notes played and where improvisation (rather than strict adherence to
the text) is highly prized. In the case of Mann and Mellers, The Beatles were discussed
in comparison with the great classical composers, and popular music was thus initially
judged by how far it fitted into a Western canon, the aesthetics of which were ill suited for
analysis of pop.
While much of this work now seems dated and Eurocentric, it did at least put the
serious study of popular music on the academic agenda. It can, in retrospect, be seen as
part of a broader attempt to locate popular music in the academic realm, as shown by the
attempts to problematise popular music in schools noted above. They had their parallel
in Sweden, where someone who was to become perhaps the most important musicologist
working on popular music was already thinking of ways forward for the academic study
of popular music at secondary school level (Tagg, 1966). Once again this was part of a
broader attempt to lay down the basics of the academic study of popular music (see Tagg,
1998).
Another key factor which shaped the development of PMS was the reaction within
academic and other intellectual circles to the work of Bob Dylan. His particularly literary
form of folk music found its way into English departments, where it was discussed as poetry.
While this led to a rather sterile debate about the merits of Dylans poetry compared to that
of Keats, it did again mean that the world of academe was treating a popular musician as
worthy of serious study (cf. Bowden, 1982).3
In this strand of PMS, analysis of lyrics had primacy over discussion about music an
approach that has come to be seen as inherently limited. First, it separates out the words
from the musical sounds and thus overemphasises one part of the text at the expense of
another. Second, lyrics are rarely written to have their impact on the printed page, rather
they are written to be integrated within the musical whole. Thus lyric-based analysis can
over-privilege the words at the expense of the music in ways which are anathema to
many composers (such as those working in contemporary electronic dance music). Third,
lyrical analysis can miss the fact that there is a great deal of evidence that many audience
members mishear the lyrics in ways which can mean that they interpret the songs in ways
not anticipated by composers or analysts. Furthermore, the way in which lyrics are sung
sarcastically, plaintively, etc. may belie the words on the page.
All this is not to deny that analysis of lyrics can be useful, or that many songwriters place
great emphasis on their lyrics it is merely to note that one early attempt to study popular
music soon had its limitations exposed. What is important here is that both musicological
and lyrical analyses of popular music are textual in approach. However, as PMS
developed, it was the extra-textual elements that came to the fore, to such an extent

79

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

that analysts such as Shuker (2001: 9) now argue that it is these elements that form the
defining characteristics of popular music itself.
These two approaches the textual and the extra-textual can be seen as forming
the two paths down which PMS has subsequently walked. The limitations of purely textual
approaches left the field of PMS open to the sociologists and others from the social sciences
who sought to locate popular music within broader socio-political and cultural trends
(Griffiths, 1999).
An early exponent of the broader approach was Dave Laing (1969), whose work has
subsequently explored Buddy Holly (1971), Marxist accounts of culture (1978), semiotics
(1985) and policy analysis (1996). Importantly, as Griffiths (1999: 402) notes, Laing paved
the way for a study of pop music, politicized at its inception. At the same time, working
largely outside academe, Paul Oliver pioneered the serious analysis of popular music via
such works as The Story of the Blues (Oliver, 1970). The era from 1967 and the release
of the Beatles landmark Sergeant Pepper album saw the development of pop or more
specifically rock being increasingly characterised as an art form. The main articulations
of such arguments came from the new cohorts of professional rock critics whose work
centred on attempts to legitimise rock as culturally significant, primarily because it could
be characterised as being art and thus demarcated from the commercial world of pop.
The work of journalists such as Nick Kent (1994) and Charles Shaar Murray (1991) was
notable in establishing the importance of some forms of popular music as culture, as well as
articulating audience as community. However, this development had only a limited impact
on academe as there has been a longstanding mutual suspicion between the academic and
the journalistic worlds, to such an extent that it is only recently that the work of pop music
journalists has been subjected to detailed academic analysis (Forde, 2001). The coming
of the rock critic did, however, serve to further legitimise popular music as an area of
intellectual enquiry. It also served as a part-time career for a key figure in the development
of PMS.
Simon Frith has had a distinguished career as both a rock critic and an academic. He
is thus, as Griffiths (1999: 399) notes, doubly important in linking two fields which both
sought to establish pop as worthy of intellectual enquiry. Indeed, it is almost impossible to
overestimate his importance to the development of PMS in the UK and beyond. Beginning
with the pioneering Sociology of Rock (1978) and its updated version, Sound Effects (1983),
Frith ploughed a rich field in which others were keen to follow. His work captured the move
away from purely textual analysis to the study of the industry, audiences and politics of
the music and its performers. This was to produce several landmark works along the way
(cf. Street, 1986; Negus, 1996; Shuker, 2001). Meanwhile, Friths status within PMS can be
likened to that of Marx within the social sciences in that he is a key reference point for
adherents (cf. Street, 1986; Shuker, 2001) and detractors (cf. Moore, 2001; Grossberg, 2002)
alike. While his work seldom referred to issues in the teaching of popular music, it was
clear that his vision of PMS was inclusive rather than exclusive. Importantly, he continues
to see PMS as vibrant (Frith, 2004) when others are becoming disillusioned (Grossberg,
2002).
Another key development in the history of PMS was the establishment in 1981 of the
International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), which has developed from
a small organisation to one which finds that it struggles to contain its biennial conferences

80

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

in a weeks schedule. A glance at the organisations website (www.iaspm.net/) shows the

diversity of ways in which popular music is studied and researched, while a similar glance
at its conference programme gives great insight into PMSs diverse nature.4 In addition,
the newsletters of its UK (and, from 2000, Ireland) branch are invaluable records of the
changing nature of PMS.
Historically, another key development was the establishment of an academic journal,
Popular Music , in 1981. This was to become the de facto in-house magazine of PMS
(especially in the UK). It has American counterparts in Popular Music and Society (founded
in 1971) and the Journal of Popular Music Studies (1988), and international comparators
such as the Australasian Perfect Beat (1992) (Caw, 2004: 50) and the German Beitrage zur
Popular Musikforschung . Popular Musicology Online was founded in 2000 as a successor
to Popular Musicology Quarterly and has since become an important web-based outlet.
A new journal, Popular Music History , was launched in April 2004. These journals again
illustrate the rich diversity that the term PMS encompasses and the approaches that its
practitioners adopt.
Institutionally, the academic study of popular music in the UK can be seen as
developing hesitantly and in a haphazard way. In England the University of Salford launched
its BA in Popular Music and Recording in 1990. It now attracts 500 applicants per annum
for its 50 places (Chrisafis, 2001). Other important pioneers include the BA in Popular
Music set up at Bretton Hall School of Music (University of Leeds) in 1992 and the
University of Westminsters BA in Commercial Music, which was the first to be designed
specifically to meet the needs of the music industries. In Scotland early pioneers included
industry courses at West Lothian College, which were then followed by a raft of similar
courses in further education. But degree courses in HE had to wait until 2001 when the
University of Paisley launched its Commercial Music BA5 and Napier its BA in Popular
Music.
However, the most important development thus far was the founding of the Institute
of Popular Music (IPM) at the University of Liverpool in 1988. Interestingly, this started out
teaching postgraduate courses (an MA in Popular Music and PhD work),6 developed joint
honours in the early 1990s, and only began its own undergraduate degree in 2001. It is
also a key contributor to the universitys Communication, Media and Popular Music BA.
While the IPM has become the most important centre for PMS in the UK it has, like the
CCCS at Birmingham (which can be seen as its precursor), enjoyed a somewhat perilous
existence. Its staff contingent has expanded and now includes several leading names in the
field, but it has recently been subsumed within a larger School of Music and lost some of
its autonomy.
Another example of the marginal nature of PMS is the fact that those working in the
field rarely see their work recognised when they become professors. The title of Professor of
Popular Music has only been bestowed upon two UK academics, Sheila Whiteley at Salford
and Allan Moore at the University of Surrey. Simon Frith has been Professor of English at
the University of Strathclyde and is currently Professor of Film and Media at the University
of Stirling, while other leading exponents of PMS have found themselves as Professor of
Musicology (Keith Negus at Goldsmiths College, University of London) and Professor of
Politics (John Street, University of East Anglia). While institutional politics will doubtless
have played a role in all this, it is hard to escape the feeling that there may be a reluctance

81

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

to use the title Professor of Popular Music, with the net effect that PMS itself continues to
be undervalued.
Meanwhile, PMS has broadened from the study of texts to the study of the political
economy of popular music and various other extra-musical elements. It has also moved
from the study of major selling artists to look at the lives of ordinary musicians and
fans. Through such pioneering work as Sara Cohens anthropological study of musicians in
Liverpool (Cohen, 1991) the emphasis has shifted from the superstar to the local musician.
In this sense PMS has become more democratic. It is also moving away from the celebratory
tone adopted in some early studies to examine the downside of popular music, such as
its ubiquity (De Nora, 2000) and its contribution to social violence (Cloonan & Johnson,
2002). In sum, in institutional terms PMS has become an established area of study that has
broadened its research base. However, as this has taken place it has raised an important
question about its status.

Disciplined?

As noted above, the term PMS now has a wide currency, and my main focus here is on the
development and parameters of PMS within UK HE courses. Within that locus it is clear that
popular music is taught in a variety of contexts and in a number of ways. As noted above,
PMS is taught not only in its own right but also across a number of subject disciplines. This
diversity raises broader questions about the extent to which PMS can be seen as a subject
discipline in its own right. Its leading academic organisation has its own view on this
matter: popular music studies is not an academic discipline (International Association for
the Study of Popular Music website, www.iaspm.net/iaspm/unis.html, accessed 2 August
2004).
Certainly, many proponents of PMS are convinced that it is not an academic discipline.
Thus Caw (2004: 49) notes that Both scholars and observers agree that the field of popular
music studies is far too interdisciplinary to be considered a discipline, and Jarvilouma
argues that popular music studies is not really a discipline rather a research field (Johnson
& Jarvilouma, 2002: 13). Mike Jones (2000: 10) argues that PMS remains a co-discipline
rather than a multi-disciplinary area. In addition, the editors of an academic collection
entitled Popular Music Studies confidently state that:
The study of popular music is, at its best, a uniquely interdisciplinary area of
research, drawing significant contributions from writers within a number of academic
fields including musicology, media and cultural studies, sociology, anthropology,
ethnomusicology, folkloristics, psychology, social history and cultural geography.
(Hesmondhalgh & Negus, 2002: 2)

They go on to argue that one way of understanding PMS is as a reaction by proponents to

developments in their own disciplinary histories (ibid: 4). In musicology, the reaction was
against certain types of formalist analysis and a concentration on Western classical music,
while PMS scholars from a sociological background were reacting against the structuralistfunctionalist approaches and behaviourism that had been the dominant paradigms in much
social science (especially in the USA) in the 1950s and 1960s (ibid: 5). Once again there are

82

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

parallels here with Cultural Studies, which, according to Johnson (1996), itself developed
as a reaction in this case to developments within Marxism.
So there is some consensus amongst PMS scholars that it is not a discipline in its own
right, rather it is a field of study which appears to have only one unifying factor its study of
popular music. While this is something of a tautology, it also raises as many questions as it
answers. In particular it begs the question of what popular music itself consists of. This has
been the subject of some academic debate (cf. Longhurst, 1995; Middleton, 1990; Shuker,
2001), with something of a consensus emerging that popular music is defined primarily in
terms of its aspiration to find a mass audience i.e. to be genuinely popular rather than
by any musical properties (although the two are, of course, related).
The importance of such debates here is that PMS has emerged as a subject area in which
definitions of the subject are contested. This has important implications, not the least of
which is its effect upon what is taught. Partly because it has developed across a range
of disciplines and subject areas, curricula for PMS courses have evolved in a haphazard
way. Only with the launch of dedicated PMS degrees have questions of what should be at
its core been raised and addressed, prompting a range of responses. These responses can
be seen as attempts to deal not only with uncertainty about whether the subject should
be taught at all, but also with how it should be taught, what should be taught, and how
the competing pressures of institutional politics, student demand, developments in the
body of academic knowledge and the demands of the popular music industries7 should be
dealt with.
As we have already noted, the degree of uncertainty about PMS is reflected in the
nomenclature of its degree courses, and there are also numerous joint and sub-degrees.
But if PMS is a field of study, then what should students embarking on it expect to find
within that field?
Most arts and social sciences departments in the UK have traditionally made pragmatic
choices on curriculum content dependent on such competing demands as institutional
constraints, the requirements of professional bodies, employer demands, student demand
and, perhaps most of all, staff interests. A typical model might involve the teaching of core
modules and then varying amounts of student choice. This raises the issue of what should
be considered core in this instance. What should PMS students be expected to know?
What should a PMS graduate be able to do?
Clearly, a number of responses are possible. What emerges, however, is that curricula
for undergraduate degree programmes in popular music within HE can be divided into three
parts: musical, vocational (including business studies) and theoretical.8 The demarcations
between these areas are of necessity somewhat blurry: the playing of an instrument can be
seen as putting theory into practice, while the refinement of musical skills can also be seen
as being vocational in that it may aid employment prospects. But each is a component part
of PMS and merits consideration in its own right.
Musicianship

One immediate issue is what PMS students should be able to do in order to gain entry into
undergraduate courses. Ultimately, such decisions are likely to be pragmatic responses
to conflicting demands and shaped by factors such as the likely impact on the potential

83

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

cohort and staff expertise. However, one of the most noticeable facets of PMS is how many
non-musicians are active within it (including this author).9 Moreover, it is notable that it
is entirely possible for non-musicians to gain popular music degrees. This, if nothing else,
is enough to differentiate PMS degrees from traditional Music degrees, and there are at
least two reasons why it occurs one concerning theory, the other vocation. The first is
that lineage of PMS which comes out of sociological and cultural theory. The second is
that within the industry itself the majority of jobs are for non-musicians (Dumbreck et al .,
2003). Thus in purely vocational terms being a non-musician with a PMS degree should
not be a bar to employment within the popular music industries.
Unsurprisingly, different HEIs have responded in different ways to the question of
whether musical ability is a prerequisite for studying popular music at undergraduate level.
Thus in 2001 Napier University launched a Popular Music degree which requires applicants
to present a recording or composition portfolio, while 50 miles away it is possible for nonmusicians to undertake the University of Paisleys BA in Commercial Music. The University
of Liverpool does not require entrants to its Popular Music BA to have reached any level
of competence as a musician, a practice replicated within the city on Liverpool John
Moores Universitys BA in Popular Music Studies. In order to undertake a BA in PMS at
Barking College entrants need musical proficiency, something that is not required on the
postgraduate MSc at the University of Liverpool. In fact, it may be the case that the higher
up one wants to study PMS, the less one needs to be a practising musician.
Once entry has been gained, those students on courses which require musical prowess
are likely to find that study in this area concentrates on performance and composition. In
some cases this will be supplemented by practical courses on such things as the Musical Instrumental Digital Interface (MIDI) system, sound engineering, and so on. Thus post-school
qualifications such as certificates, diplomas and higher diplomas on subjects such as Music
Management, Sound Engineering and Popular Music can be found in further education
across the UK. In fact there is an almost unquantifiable amount of popular music courses
across the UK, ranging from one-off events provided by organisations such as the Performing
Rights Society Foundation, the International Managers Forum and the Musicians Union,
through short courses to Higher National Certificates and Higher National Diplomas.
Vocationalism

The vocational thrust within PMS can be found beyond further and higher education in
such places as the New Deal for Musicians, a UK government initiative started in 1998
(Cloonan, 2002, 2003, 2004). It is also present within PMS degree courses where the
growth of an emphasis on employability has been reflected, such as the BA in Music
Industry Management and Popular Music at Buckingham Chilterns University College.
While PMS has hardly been alone in having to react to the new employability agenda and
the rise of vocationalism, it is likely to be towards the forefront of these developments in
that it is probable that many PMS students undertake their studies in the (often mistaken)
belief that this will be a route into the music industries.
The rise of PMS degree courses also coincided with a growing concern within
government to meet the needs of the creative industries. Unsurprisingly, this concern has
been reflected in PMS courses and has led to some creativity in course descriptions. At

84

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

times it is apparent that the sort of hype which the music industries themselves thrive on
has found its way into HE. Courses which promise students free laptops (NME , 7 May
2002) or ask Do you want to be a professional musician? (NME , 7 September 2002) are
perhaps overselling. The Academy of Contemporary Music, which has its degrees validated
by the University of Middlesex, describes itself as Europes leading school for rock and pop
musicians and maintains that its staff are the best. The University of Derby claims that
its BA in Popular Music and Music Technology is one of the few opportunities in higher
education to study popular music, which, as this article shows, is simply inaccurate. Such
claims are doubtless made in attempts to impress potential students, and there are many
dangers for PMS in trying to be too populist. As Tagg (1998: 232) notes:
One problem with working in an area of potential expansion is that it is attractive
to adventurers of educational management who see students as a source of revenue
rather than as a source for a better future.

Indeed, it might be argued that whatever the reality is, it is not in institutions interests to
deter would-be students by disabusing them of the notions that such courses are automatic
paths into the industries. However, there is a thin line between hype and misrepresentation.
More charitably, such publicity also shows an awareness that PMS must take some account
of the needs of the popular music industries. This may have led to a popular perception
that the only thing PMS is about is turning students into pop stars, as most press coverage
concentrates solely on students prospects of commercial success (cf. Abrams, 2002; Crace,
2001; Chrisafis, 2001; Harris, 2001; ODonnell, 2001). Thus press articles in Scotland saw
the development of Napier Universitys BA in Popular Music purely in terms of what it
might lead to commercially (ODonnell, 2001; Williams, 2003). The latter event saw The
Scotsman editorialise (22 March 2001) that there was the suspicion that populist courses
such as the Napier pop degree are more a way of drumming up student numbers in the
fiercely competitive world of higher education than they are serious attempts to extend
vocational skills or academic learning. A similar response greeted news that an Institute of
Modern Music was to be set up in Brighton when an article in The Observer was headed:
We dont need no education: lessons in rock stardom are doomed to fail as another fame
school opens (Mugan, 2002).
While numerous other examples could be cited, what is important here for PMS is
not to bemoan the approach of journalists but to recognise that such accounts influence
public perceptions of PMS. More importantly, they show that whatever else it is, PMS
cannot simply be about vocationalism. Particular scorn is reserved in the media for fame
schools and courses which appear to promise careers in industries with notoriously
insecure conditions of employment. At the very least, therefore, it is incumbent upon
PMS practitioners to impart transferable skills (such as critical thinking) to their students.
But it is also vital that PMS always rises above the simply vocational. PMS should challenge
existing industry practices and organisations rather than simply place students within them
a point to which I will return later.
Once again, HEIs have varied in their emphasis on vocationalism. Publicity for the
University of Paisleys Commercial Music degree says that it aims to enable those with
talent and ability to forge a life long [sic ] career, while the Academy of Contemporary
Music says that it has designed its curriculum to develop a rounded set of skills. However,

85

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

such an approach is downplayed by Liverpool John Moores, whose publicity states that The
Popular Music Studies degree is not narrowly vocational. Our experience has shown that
the communication and research skills built up across our degree, as well as opportunities
for work-based learning, provide graduates with a range of skills that are highly sought after
by media and non-media employers.
While there is a great deal of concern that PMS courses should meet the demands of
music industries employers, matters are complicated here by the fact that the music industries personnel have long been suspicious of academic courses and tend to value handson experience above qualifications. In addition, their own investment in education has been
somewhat limited. The UK recording industrys umbrella organisation, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), funds the Brit School in Croydon, which provides a range of vocationally
orientated courses at school and post-school level. But this amounts to a comparatively
small investment. This is primarily because the music industries have been able to be
somewhat complacent in their educational investment, knowing that they have always been
a magnet for labour. Moreover, as Tagg (1998: 231) has noted, the UK has tended to produce
too many musicians from the tertiary sector in comparison to available employment. Thus
the music industries overall response to PMS can be seen as being, at best, lukewarm.10
The designers of PMS courses are on the horns of a dilemma here. As has already been
noted, most employment in the popular music industries is as non-musicians. Moreover,
these industries thrive on self-employment, and perhaps the key skill practitioners need
to develop is that of networking (Cloonan, 2003, 2004). Notably there is no annual milk
round of potential applicants to the music industries. Perhaps the best PMS courses can
do in such cases is to instil transferable skills and to ensure that students who aspire to
careers in the music industries have as much interaction as possible with their local music
industries. (It may be that the old adage Its not what you know, its who you know is
particularly applicable to the music industries.) In these instances those PMS courses that
are likely to be most successful are those located within a thriving or historic local music
scene. It is therefore no coincidence that the UKs most successful PMS unit is located in
Liverpool, the home of the most successful UK band ever. A combination of the Beatles
name and the perception of a thriving local scene are obvious selling points.
Pop in theor y

In common with Cultural Studies, PMS has developed within what might broadly be
described as a liberal/left framework. Indeed, Dai Griffiths argument that popular music
writing is best understood as a certain literature of the left during the late twentieth century
(Griffiths, 1999: 395) is highly persuasive. This is partly because this strand of PMS has
drawn upon the Marxist underpinning of British cultural studies, but it is also because
it has in part been a reaction against the dominance of the Western classical tradition
within musicology. Thus a key part of PMS has been social critique and the challenging
of accepted hierarchies. This approach may itself have helped to distance PMS from the
music industries, in which historically the main challenges have been to existing modes of
entrepreneurship rather than to existing modes of production. However, as Griffiths (1999:
400) notes, parading leftist political conviction is almost de rigueur within PMS in ways
which would not be accepted elsewhere in academe. For example, Griffiths locates Richard

86

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

Middletons Studying Popular Music as both the most important musicological work on pop
music to have appeared (ibid: 404) and as an engaged literature of the left (ibid: 407).
More broadly, Hesmondhalgh and Negus (2002: 78) argue that during the 1980s and
1990s a set of key themes and concepts crystallised in PMS which were those of musical
meaning, studies of audiences, studies in the music industries and questions of place,
to which I would add an increasing interest in questions of identity (cf. Bennett, 2001;
Hawkins, 2002). Thus a field has been identified and has been theorised in various ways,
although as Mike Jones (2000: 4) notes, the biggest fault line in PMS is the fissure that lies
between analysis of popular music texts and analysis of popular music contexts. When the
vocational aspects alluded to above are added into this mix, the result is that the theoretical
parts of PMS courses often have a tokenistic feel to them. Moreover, anecdotal and personal
experience suggests that many students struggle to see what insights sociological theory
can lend to the subject. However, it appears that at least some theory finds its way into most
PMS courses. Thus the Academy of Contemporary Music, which has probably the most
practitioner-based degree course, includes a module on Cultural and Critical Perspectives,
and the University of East Londons BA in Music Culture, which is also heavily practitionerbased, includes modules such as Definitions of Popular Music and Music in Popular Culture.
Bearing in mind the reluctance of music departments to appoint senior researchers to
professorships in popular music, it is no surprise that it is in other academic departments
that most of the theoretical approaches to PMS have been developed. Certainly, the
development of PMS has been heavily influenced (and, arguably, constrained) by the fact
that few of its practitioners have been able to devote themselves fully to the subject. Rather,
popular music activities have been an add-on to existing workloads. One salutary reminder
of this is that the UKs leading PMS theoretician, Simon Frith, has never been employed
as a full-time popular music academic. While the expansion of PMS degrees with core
staff superficially offers some hope that things might change, the fact that most of these
courses are in institutions with high teaching loads is a reason for declaring only cautious
optimism. Meanwhile, in the older institutions PMS retains the status of something of a
hobby for what BBC Radio 4 once termed wacademics.
PMS in the modern world

In many ways the position of PMS today is analogous to that of Cultural and Media Studies
some years ago in that it is part of the curriculum in many HEIs but still treated with a certain
amount of condescension. If Cultural Studies was derided in its early days as Hoggarts
line in cheap hats,11 then PMS currently finds itself subject to the sorts of derision and
suspicion noted above. Its major achievements thus far might have been to survive and to
establish itself. The issues PMS currently faces are those which confront an area of study
which has moved from being an academic niche into being part of the mainstream. In the
contemporary era particular problems are present in two key policy areas: research, and
the adaptation to the lifelong learning agenda.
In the case of research, the UK is dominated by its periodic assessment cycle known as
the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). The review process is complicated, but in essence
comprises a system of peer review by panels which rank units of assessment (commonly
departments) on a seven-point scale between 1 and 5 with two grades at 3 (a and b) and 5

87

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

(5 and 5*).12 The system then allocates resources according to scores attained. In the last
review, in 2001, there were 69 separate subject areas, some of which had sub-areas (for
example within Education there was a Continuing Education sub-area). However, within
Music there is no Popular Music sub-area, and only one of the 11 members of the panel
came from a PMS background. While such factors disadvantage PMS researchers, they have
not been without their successes, such as the contribution to the University of Liverpools
Music Department achieving a 5* ranking in 1996.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that some PMS works will be returned for
the RAE under other subject areas in which academics might be working. Thus leading
PMS theoreticians may not feature in the Music part of the UKs main method of assessing
research activity. Nevertheless it is clear that a rich field of PMS research is taking place
with participants from a range of subject backgrounds and using a range of methodologies
to investigate a range of issues.
One example of this is that in an era of increased consultancy and recognition of
the economic importance of the cultural industries, academics have become involved
in the development of popular music policy. Kruse (1998) and Negus (1996) have both
raised the question of the desirability or otherwise of this. The latter is sceptical, while
the former sees it as inevitable. This inevitability may be particularly so in the UK, where
PMS has risen alongside two other key developments. First, universities have become
increasingly concerned with raising research income; second, popular music policies have
been developed by local and national government. These two factors, combined with
academic expertise, have meant that academics have written reports at local and national
level (cf. Williamson et al ., 2003; Wilson et al ., 2001). The relationship between funder
and recipient is not without its problems (see Cloonan et al ., 2004), but the fact that PMS
academics are writing such reports at least gives the lie to the notion that PMS is part of an
ivory tower isolationism. This is further evidenced by the fact that the fate of popular music
on the Internet is currently at the forefront of debates about control of cultural products, and
that academics have been deeply involved in such debates (cf. Jones, S., 2000; Marshall,
2002; Garofalo, 2003; Frith & Marshall, 2004).
In terms of the lifelong learning agenda, it is important to note that the notion of
lifelong learning is itself a highly problematic one, and one which has been contested
(cf. Coffield, 1999). In the UK, official lifelong learning policy has become entwined in
debates around vocationalism and has been castigated for becoming an instrument of social
control (ibid.). Thus while the New Deal for Musicians can be seen as a benefit to some
musicians (Cloonan, 2003, 2004), it is important to note that behind the broader New Deal
programme is the threat of compulsion, as those young unemployed workers who refuse
to cooperate risk having their benefits withdrawn. But New Deal is seen as part of lifelong
learning (Scottish Office, 1998: 5), thus associating it with compulsory learning.
However, it is also important to recognise that lifelong learning is also concerned (if
only rhetorically) with social justice. The UK government believes that the way to combat
social exclusion is to get as many people as possible into work and that the way to do
this is to get as many people as possible involved in post-compulsory education so that
they occupy better positions in the labour market. Putting aside the obvious criticism that
this implies that unemployment is the fault of the individual rather than of any structural
problem (such as racism or sexism), the implication is that participation in post-compulsory

88

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

education must be widened; thus the UK government has declared a target of 50 per cent
participation in higher education in England.
In this case it is interesting to note that at least one Further Education (FE) college,
Newcastle, uses PMS as an Access route for adult returners. The college has good links with
the University of Newcastle where the Professor of Music, Richard Middleton, has
supported moves to widen access (Middleton, 2000). Moreover, universities such as City
(London), Glasgow and Liverpool have open access to adult education classes featuring
various PMS courses. In addition, the links between PMS and non-traditional students
are further enhanced by the fact that many PMS practitioners, including one of the UKs
two professors of Popular Music, are former mature students. More broadly, it is the new
universities that have been at the forefront of the widening participation agenda, and this
has undoubtedly fed into PMS. It is noticeable from looking at the list of UK institutions
which teach PMS that the vast majority of them (16 out of 19) are drawn from the post-92
sector of newer HEIs which are a mixture of former polytechnics, HE colleges and colleges
which have HE as part of a wider remit.13 Thus PMS is simultaneously at the forefront of
widening participation while also being at the margins of traditional academe.
If widening participation is a social justice initiative, it is important to note that PMS can
be seen as being inherently democratic in that it builds on a body of knowledge which most
people have. There is a great deal of literature which shows the importance of (popular)
music to peoples lives, and PMS practitioners can use this interest to their advantage. Of
course, an interest in a subject is not the same as an academic study of it, and my own
experience suggests that a certain amount of academic initiation might be necessary in
order to turn raw PMS recruits into students (it is one thing to read NME or Kerrang!, quite
another to read Popular Music or Cultural Studies). Nevertheless, it is possible to assume
a common currency (and possibly cultural capital see Cloonan, 2004) amongst PMS
students which may not be there amongst other students. Matters are complicated here by
the extent to which being a practising musician is a prerequisite to studying PMS, but even
here a common culture may be found between musicians and non-musicians as both may
share equally strong views about what constitutes good or bad music and, importantly,
why. Moreover, as PMS research has become increasingly interested in the ways in which
music is used in everyday life (De Nora, 2000), it has thus assumed the role of dealing with
the ordinary and the mundane.
It is also important to note that the widening participation agenda has been resisted
amongst those who believe that only a small percentage of the population will ever be
suitable for the academic rigour necessary for degree-level work. The official manifestation
of such suspicion can be seen in the various quality assurance regimes that have been set
up at national level in order to assuage such criticisms by showing that academic standards
are being maintained. However, accusations of dumbing down still appear, and it is the
newer subjects such as PMS that feature amongst the straw men to attack.
There is not space here to go into the merits of the dumbing down debate, except for
its (ir)relevance to PMS, where it is important to refute any accusations. Certainly PMS in the
UK has produced distinguished scholars such as Frith, Laing, Middleton, Street, Tagg, and
others whose work maintains the highest academic standards. In addition, PMS scholars
are influencing policy, thus suggesting that this is by no means an ivory tower exercise.
Nevertheless, a certain defensiveness has been evident amongst PMS scholars and has led

89

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

to the accusation that in order to counteract being seen as low brow, PMS theorists have
over-quoted great thinkers (de Kloet, 2003: 189).
So PMS seems to be simultaneously on the defensive and the offensive. One
commentator has written of PMS storming the fortress of music departments from the
encampments of media studies, cultural studies, English, sociology and communication
(Caw, 2004: 53), yet this has not been without some self-awareness. Hesmondhalgh and
Negus (2002: 1) describe PMS as established, though relatively marginal, and this is
true. Yet it retains enormous potential partly, as Tagg (1998: 230) notes, because of the
importance of popular music as an economic force, partly because of new social formations
and partly because of the allure of the industries to young people. In terms of the subject,
Hesmondhalgh and Negus (2002: 2) argue that what ultimately connects people across
the field is a concern with questions about the relationship between music meaning, social
power and cultural value. In this sense PMS is implicated in the power struggles within
the increasingly important cultural industries.
Perhaps one way forward is to acknowledge the fact that PMS has changed the face of
traditional studies of music forever. Moreover, there is a need to recognise the importance
of PMS beyond music departments. It may be that Popular Music should not have its own
degrees, but it should certainly be a core part of Music, Cultural Studies and associated
degrees. This would go some way to ending the marginalisation that PMS currently
encounters. Certainly there are persuasive arguments for saying that in a society in which
music is almost omnipresent, the informed citizen must be aware of its power. In addition,
as the major recording industries are parts of extremely powerful media groups, this means
that the truly informed citizen will need some knowledge of the political economy of
popular music in order to understand the modern world. Furthermore, the increasingly
close links between politicians and musicians (Cloonan & Street, 1998; Street, 1997) mean
that policies are being designed as the result of such interactions the New Deal for Music
being one example of this. Such policies are impacting not in the ivory towers, but in the
lived experience of musicians. Again, PMS can enlighten such experiences.
It is perhaps on this optimistic note that I should end. At its best, PMS offers all citizens
the chance to understand their world better and, more importantly, to try to change it.
Here PMS scholars offer resources of hope. Examples of this include Toynbees work on
the nature of social authorship in popular music (Toynbee, 2000) and Middletons notion
of the critical potential of musical practice (Middleton, 2000: 17). Such work shows that
PMS must move beyond what has been described as useful knowledge such as that which
allows one to make ones way in the world into really useful knowledge which imparts a
genuine understanding and a desire to change the world. Should PMS strive for this then
it might well be accused not of dumbing down, but of aiming too high. But while PMS
research is rightly moving towards the ordinary and mundane, PMS teaching should never
be afraid to reach for the stars.
Notes
1
2

See, for example, the IAPSM UK newsletter 1994, volume 2.

Griffiths description of Mellers as an earnest onlooker (Griffiths, 1999) is apt. His article also outlines
other approaches to the academic study of popular music, which he characterises as Street Fighting
Men and Managers. See ibid.

90

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

4
5

6
7

9
10
11
12
13

Dylan is still studied from a literary standpoint, as exemplified by the work of Christopher Ricks (2004).
Meanwhile, the media reaction to the award to Dylan of an honorary doctorate by the University of
St Andrews in June 2004 again showed that academic regard of popular music is still treated with
suspicion in some circles. This was paralleled in Ricks own career in 2004 when his appointment
as Professor of Poetry at Oxford attracted some consternation and headlines such as Expert on Bob
Dylans lyrics voted Oxfords new professor of poetry (The Observer , 16 May 2004, 4) and Bob Dylan
fan wins Oxford poetry post (Ezard, 2004).
For an interesting overview of IASPMs first 20 years by one of its founders, see www.theblackbook.
net/acad/tagg/articles/turku2001.html.
While Paisley and Westminster both use the title, the idea that popular music is commercial is
inherently problematic. Most popular musicians struggle to make money, and one account estimates
that nearly 98% of acts fail in this regard (Jones, 1999: 256).
The field of postgraduate studies in PMS is an important topic in its own right, but here I wish to
concentrate on undergraduate provision.
The plural popular music industries, rather then music industry (singular), is used here since what is
commonly called the music industry is actually made up of a series of intertwined industries such as
live music, recording, retail, etc. For an overview, see Williamson et al . (2003).
I will not discuss issues of pedagogy here. However, this is obviously a rich field of enquiry in its own
right and was the subject of panels at the IASPM UK and Ireland conference in 2002. One important
development in this area has been a move away from how to teach towards how musicians learn (see
Green, 2002). See also Isherwood (2000).
The term non-musician is contestable. It is used here in the sense of not having attained the level of
musical competence necessary to enter some PMS (and other music) courses.
Some evidence of what employers within the industries want can be found in Dumbreck et al . (2003).
Richard Hoggart founded the CCCS.
In England an additional level of 6* was introduced after the initial results of the 2001 review were
announced.
Of the pre-1992s, Liverpool offers degrees in Popular Music and Communication and Media and
Popular Music, Newcastle in Popular and Contemporary Music and Salford in Popular Music and
Recording.

References
ABRAMS, F. (2002) So you wanna be a pop idol. The Guardian, 26 Feb, Education section, 12.
ARNOT, C. (2000) Big blue degree. The Guardian, 18 April, Education section, 12.
BENNETT, A. (2001) Cultures of Popular Music . Buckingham: Open University Press.
BOWDEN, B. (1982) Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob Dylan. Bloomington: University of
Indiana Press.
CAW, T. S. (2004) Popular Music Studies information needs: you just might find. Popular Music and Society ,
27, 1, 4950.
CHAPPLE, S. & GAROFALO, R. (1977) Rock and Roll Is Here To Pay . Chicago: Nelson Hall.
CHRISAFIS, A. (2001) Wanna be a pop star. The Guardian, 20 Feb, Education section, 1011.
CLOONAN, M. (2002) Hitting the right note? The New Deal for Musicians. Journal of Vocational Education
and Training, 54, 1, 5166.
CLOONAN, M. (2003) Teaching young pups new tricks? The New Deal for Musicians. Music Education
Research, 5, 1, 1328.
CLOONAN, M. (2004) A capital project? The New Deal for Musicians in Scotland. Studies in the Education
of Adults, 36, 1, 4056.

91

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

Martin Cloonan

CLOONAN, M. & JOHNSON, B. (2002) Killing me softly with his song: an initial investigation into the use
of popular music as a tool of repression. Popular Music , 21,1, 2739.
CLOONAN, M. & STREET, J. (1998) Rock the vote: popular culture and politics. Politics, 18, 1, 338.
CLOONAN, M., WILLIAMSON, J. & FRITH, S. (2004) What is music worth? Some reflections on the Scottish
experience. Popular Music , 23, 2, forthcoming.
COFFIELD, F. (1999) Breaking the consensus: lifelong learning as social control. British Educational
Research Journal, 25, 4, 47999.
COHEN, S. (1991) Rock Culture in Liverpool . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
COOKE, D. (1968) The LennonMacCartney songs. The Listener , 1 Feb.
CRACE, J. (2001) Train for fame. The Guardian, 4 Sept, Education section, 53.
DE KLOET, J. (2003) Red Sonic Trajectories. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.
DE NORA, T. (2000) Music in Everyday Life . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DUMBRECK, A., HERMANNS, K. & MCBAIN, K. (2003) Sounding Out The Future . London: National Music
Council.
EZARD, J. (2004) Bob Dylan fan wins Oxford poetry post. The Guardian, 17 May, 8.
FORDE, E. (2001) Music journalists, music press officers and the consumer music press in the UK. London:
University of Westminster, PhD thesis.
FRITH, S. (1978) The Sociology of Rock . London: Constable.
FRITH, S. (1983) Sound Effects. London: Constable.
FRITH, S. (2004) Reasons to be cheerful review essay. Popular Music , 23, 1, forthcoming.
FRITH, S. & MARSHALL, L. (Eds.) (2004) Music and Copyright 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
GAROFALO, R. (2003) I want my MP3: Who owns internet music?, in M. Cloonan & R. Garofalo (Eds.),
Policing Pop, 3045. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
GREEN, L. (2002) How Popular Musicians Learn. Aldershot: Ashgate.
GRIFFITHS, D. (1999) The high analysis of low culture. Music Analysis, 18, 3, 389434.
GROSSBERG, L. (2002) Reflections of a disappointed popular music scholar, in R. Beebee, D. Fulbrook &
B. Saunders (Eds.), Rock Over The Edge , 2559. London: Duke University Press.
HAMM, C. (1983) Yesterdays: Popular Song In America. New York: W. W. Norton.
HARRIS, P. (2001) Reggaes local heroes launch fame school. The Observer , 14 Oct.
HAWKINS, S. (2002) Settling the Pop Score . Aldershot: Ashgate.
HESMONDHALGH, D. & NEGUS, K. (2002) Introduction, in D. Hesmondhalgh & K. Negus (Eds.), Popular
Music Studies,110. London: Arnold.
HIRSCH, P. (1970) The Structure of the Popular Music Industry . Michigan: University of Michigan.
ISHERWOOD, M. (Ed.) (2000) Interactive 2000: Current Issues in Teaching Music in Higher Education.
Liverpool: Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
JOHNSON, B. & JARVILOUMA, H. (2002) Closing plenary of IASPM 2001. Review of Popular Music , 30,
1214.
JOHNSON, P. (1964) The menace of Beatlism. New Statesman, 28 Feb, 3267.
JOHNSON, R. (1996) What is cultural studies anyway?, in J. Storey (Ed.),What is Cultural Studies?,
71114. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
JOHNSTONE, D. (2003) We dont need no education. NME , 29 March, 61.
JONES, M. (1999) Changing sides: Labours music industry policy under the microscope. CriticalQuarterly ,
41, 1, 2231.
JONES, M. (2000) How can I go forward when I dont know which way Im facing?, in M. Isherwood (Ed.),
Interactive 2000: Current Issues in Teaching Music in Higher Education. Liverpool: Liverpool Institute
of Performing Arts.
JONES, S. (2000) Music and the internet. Popular Music , 19, 2, 21730.
KENT, N. (1994) The Dark Stuff . London: Penguin.

92

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94

What is Popular Music Studies? Some obser vations

KRUSE, K. (1998) Musical production, public policy and the market, in T. Swiss, J. Sloop & A. Herman
(Eds.), Mapping the Beat ,187201. Oxford: Blackwell.
LAING, D. (1969) The Sound of Our Time . London: Sheed and Ward.
LAING, D. (1971) Buddy Holly . London: Studio Vista.
LAING, D. (1978) The Marxist Theory of Art . Hassocks: Harvester Press.
LAING, D. (1985) One Chord Wonders. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
LAING, D. (1996) Music in Europe. Brussels: European Music Office.
LONGHURST, B. (1995) Popular Music and Society . Cambridge: Polity Press.
MANN, W. (1963) What songs The Beatles sang. The Times, 27 Dec.
MARSHALL, L. (2002) Metallica and morality: the rhetorical battleground of the Napster wars.
Entertainment Law , 1,1, 119.
MCCLARY, S. & WALSER, R. (1990) Start making sense! Musicology wrestles with rock, in S. Frith &
A. Goodwin (Eds.), On Record , 27793. London: Routledge.
MELLERS, M. (1973) Twilight of the Gods. London: Faber.
MIDDLETON, R. (1990) Studying Popular Music . Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
MIDDLETON, R. (2000) Music at Newcastle University. IASPM.UK Newsletter, 19, 1, 1518.
MIDDLETON, R. (2002) Popular music analysis and musicology: bridging the gap, in R. Middleton (Ed.),
Reading Pop, 10421. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MOORE, A. (2001) Rock: The Primary Text 2nd edn. Aldershot: Ashgate.
MUGAN, C. (2002) We dont need no education: lessons in rock stardom are doomed to fail as another
fame school opens. The Observer , 4 Aug, Review section, 14.
MURRAY, C. S. (1991) Shots from the Hip. London: Penguin.
NEGUS, K. (1996) Popular Music in Theory . Cambridge: Polity.
ODONNELL, F. (2001) Now you can be a bachelor of stardom. The Scotsman, 22 March, 5.
OLIVER, P. (1970) The Story of the Blues. London: Barrie and Jones.
PETERSON, R. & BERGER, D. C. (1975) Cycles in symbolic production: the case of popular music.
American Sociological Review, 40, 15873.
RICKS, C. (2004) Dylans Visions of Sin. London: Viking.
SCOTTISH OFFICE (1998) Opportunity Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Office.
SHUKER, R. (2001) Understanding Popular Music 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
STREET, J. (1986) Rebel Rock . Oxford: Blackwell.
STREET, J. (1997) Politics and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Polity.
SWANWICK, K. (1968) Popular Music and the Teacher . Oxford: Pergamon Press.

TAGG, P. (1966) Pop music as a possible medium in secondary education. Goteborg:

University of Goteborg
thesis.

TAGG, P. (1998) The Goteborg

connection. Popular Music , 17, 2, 21942.
TOYNBEE, J. (2000) Making Popular Music . London: Arnold.
TYSOME, T. (2004) Do they deserve degrees? Times Higher Educational Supplement , 23 Jan, 89.
VULLIAMY, G. & LEE, E. (Eds.) (1976) Pop Music in School . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
WILLIAMS, M. (2003) Hopefuls are looking to a pop career by degrees. Herald , 3 March, 7.
WILLIAMSON, J., CLOONAN, M. & FRITH, S. (2003) Mapping the Music Industry in Scotland: A Report .
Glasgow: Scottish Enterprise. Also available online at www.scottishmusicdirectory.com.
WILSON, N., STOKES, D. & BLACKBURN, R. (2001) Banking on a Hit: The Funding Dilemma for Britains
Music Business. London: DCMS.

93

http://journals.cambridge.org

Downloaded: 27 Nov 2013

IP address: 132.229.187.94