It is common to hear talk of how music can inspire crowds, move individuals and mobilise movements. We know too of how governments can live in fear of its effects, censor its sounds and imprison its creators. At the same time, there are other governments that use music for propaganda or for torture. All of these examples speak to the idea of music's political importance. But while we may share these assumptions about music's power, we rarely stop to analyse what it is about organised sound...

In an age where film stars become presidents and politicians appear in pop videos, politics and popular culture have become inextricably interlinked. In this exciting new book, John Street provides a broad survey and analysis of this relationship.

First published in 1964, A History of Venezuela is based on Dr Guillermo Morón’s Historia de Venezuela originally published in Caracas, but it has several distinctive features. The textbook form of the original has been abandoned for a narrative presentation, various sections of the book have been abridged without, however, losing the development of the author’s thesis and two completely new chapters have been specially written for the book. The first of these deals with ...

The third edition of Media, Politics and Democracy examines the fraught debate over media influence, who wields it and what effect social and traditional media has on what we think, how we behave, and how we vote. Charting the media conglomerates of old, the alarming rise of the Tech Giants in recent decades, concerns over 'fake news', and the use of social media by political candidates, this book places contemporary anxieties into historical context and compares the response to s...

First published in 1992, Deciding Factors in British Politics is an invaluable work that introduces students to the decision-making process in British politics.The book combines detailed case studies with a comprehensive and approachable review of the key theoretical perspectives on how decisions are made. The case studies selected cover a wide range of issues and illustrate many facets of British political life – AIDS policy, the Falklands war, the nuclear power programme...

This Companion maps the world of pop and rock, pinpointing the most significant moments in its history and presenting the key issues involved in understanding popular culture's most vital art form. Expert writers chart the changing patterns in the production and consumption of popular music, the emergence of a vast industry with a turnover of billions and the rise of global stars from Elvis to Public Enemy, Nirvana to the Spice Girls. They trace the way new technologies - from the amplifie...

This book assesses the legacy of Dick Hebdige and his work on subcultures in his seminal work, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979). The volume interrogates the concept of subculture put forward by Hebdige, and asks if this concept is still capable of helping us understand the subcultures of the twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume assess the main theoretical trends behind Hebdige’s work, critically engaging with their value and how they orient a researcher or ...

Whether accompanying a march, a sit-in, or a confrontation with police, songs and protest are inextricably linked. As a tool for political activism, the protest song spells out the issues at the heart of each cause. Over a surprisingly long history, it has been used to spread ideas, inspire political imagination, and motivate political action.The protest song is - and has always been - a form of political oratory as vital to political representation as it is to performance. Investi...

This book brings together historians, sociologists and social scientists to examine aspects of youth culture. The book’s themes are riots, music and gangs, connecting spectacular expression of youthful disaffection with everyday practices. By so doing, Youth Culture and Social Change maps out new ways of historicizing responses to economic and social change: public unrest and popular culture.

From entertainment to citizenship reveals how the young use shows like X-factor to comment on how power ought to be used, and how they respond to those pop stars – like Bono and Bob Geldof – who claim to represent them. It explores how young people connect the pleasures of popular culture to the world at large. For them, popular culture is not simply a matter of escapism and entertainment, but of engagement too.The place of popular culture in politics, and its contribution to democ...

Cultural Sociology: An Introduction is the first dedicated student textbook to address cultural sociology as a legitimate model for sociological thinking and research. Highly renowned authors present a rich overview of major sociological themes and the various empirical applications of cultural sociology.A timely introductory overview to this increasingly significant field which provides invaluable summaries of key studies and approaches within cultural sociology

This updated, new edition of Introducing Cultural Studies provides a systematic and comprehensible introduction to the concepts, debates and latest research in the field. Reinforcing the interdisciplinary nature of Cultural Studies, the authors first guide the reader through cultural theory before branching out to examine different dimensions of culture in detail – including globalisation, the body, geography, fashion, and politics.Incorporating new scholarship and interna...