Music at the Margins: Popular Music and Global Cultural Diversity (Communication and Human Values)

Is there a growing homogenization of the world's popular music? Or, conversely, is there a continuing and perhaps ever increasing diversity of song styles and forms? This book addresses this issue, testing the more conventional `cultural imperialism' hypothesis by comparison with empirical findings from a study by the International Communication and Youth Culture Consortium. The focus is on how the process of popular music production is perceived by local musicians, those who are immersed in overlapping international, national, and local contexts of production. Reflections on theory, descriptions of local case studies, and interview data have been provided by the ICYC team and integrated by the lead authors in an attempt to understand how societal influences are tempered by and interpreted through cultural and semiotic codes as well as individual musicians' experiences and creative talents. Ending with a conclusion by Simon Frith, the book will be of interest to scholars, students and general readers especially in the areas of communication, popular culture, and sociology.