Since the 1950s, writing about popular music has become a staple of popular culture. Rolling Stone, Vibe, and The Source as well as music columns in major newspapers target consumers who take their music seriously. Rapidly proliferating fanzines, websites, and internet discussion groups enable virtually anyone to engage in popular music criticism. Until now, however, no one has tackled popular music criticism as a genre of journalism with a particular history and evolution. Pop Music and the Press looks at the major publications and journalists who have shaped this criticism, influencing the public's ideas about the music's significance and quality. The contributors to the volume include academics and journalists; several wear both hats, and some are musicians as well. Their essays illuminate the complex relationships of the music industry, print media, critical practice, and rock culture. (And they repeatedly dispel the notion that being a journalist is the next best thing to being a rock star.) Author note: Steve Jones is Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Among his books are CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community (editor) and Rock Formation: Popular Music, Technology, and Mass Communication.
AcknowledgmentsThe Intro: Popular Music, Media, and the Written Word - Steve JonesPart I: Institutions and History1. Re-Viewing Rock Writing: Narratives of Popular Music Criticism - Steve Jones and Kevin Featherly2. Brit Crit: Turning Points in British Rock Criticism, 1960-1990 - Gestur Gudmundsson, Ulf Lindberg, Morten Michelsen, and Hans Weisethaunet3. Word Power: A Brief, Highly Opinionated History of Hip-Hop Journalism - Jeff Chang4. Critical Senility vs. Overcomprehension: Rock Criticism and the Lesson of the Avant-Garde - Robert B. RayPart II: Discourses5. Consumers' Guides: The Political Economy of the Music Press and the Democracy of Critical Discourse - Mark Fenster6. Between Rock and a Hard Place: Gender and Rock Criticism - Kembrew McLeod7. Exclusive! The British Press and Popular Music: The Story So Far... - Martin Cloonan8. Abandoning the Absolute: Transcendence and Gender in Popular Music Discourse - Holly Kruse9. The Politics and History of Hip-Hop Journalism - Kembrew McLeodPart III: Case Studies10. Jewel Case: Pop Stars, Poets, and the Press - Thomas Swiss11. Taking Country Music Seriously: Coverage of the 1990s Boom - Joli Jensen12. Sweet Nothings: Presentation of Women Musicians in Pop Journalism - Brenda Johnson-Grau13. "The Day the Music Died"-Again: Newspaper Coverage of the Deaths of Popular Musicians - Sharon R. Mazzarella and Timothy M. MatyjewiczCoda14. Fragments of a Sociology of Rock Criticism - Simon FrithThe Outro - Chris NelsonAbout the ContributorsIndex
