Towards a cultural sociology of popular music

Abstract

This article provides a series of critical reflections on the development of sociological studies in relation to popular music and the development of a cultural sociology of popular music. The piece begins by mapping the origins of popular music as a focus for academic study and the indebtedness of this body of work to Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies-style cultural studies analyses of popular music audiences and their reception of popular music texts. This is followed by a review of sociological work on popular music and the emergence of what could be termed a proto-cultural sociological approach. The final section of the article considers the cultural turn, its impact on cultural approaches to sociology and the significance of this for the development of a cultural sociology of popular music.