Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music

Peter Webb is Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

• Introduction Section 1: Theories of Culture and Music 1. A Journey through Theories of the Intersection of Music and Culture 2. Milieu Cultures: The Theoretical Development of the Milieu: From Subcultures, Scenes and Neo-Tribes to Milieu Section 2: Journeys through Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieu Cultures 3. Interrogating the Production of Sound and Place: Bristol as a Site of Music Production, from Lunatic Fringe to Worldwide Massive 4. Neo-Folk or Post Industrial Music: The Development of an Esoteric Music Milieu 5. Hip-Hop as a Global Cultural Phenomenon: The Export and Appropriation of Contradiction, Complexity and Dialogue 6. The Great in the Small: The Changing Terrain of Independence 7. Musicians: (In) Security in the Trial and Error of the Recording Industry. Conclusion: Milieu Cultures

"Looking at the music scene in Bristol, England, Webb considers both genres (such as neo-folk, trip-hop, and hip-hop) and the influence of the recording industry in order to illustrate how geography, genre, globalization, and economies influence individuals and subculures involved in the creation of popular music...Recommended." -- B.A. Hunter, Univeristy of Idaho, Choice"Many years of immersion in the challenging and idiosyncratic music scene of Bristol, UK have enabled Peter Webb to turn his empirical knowledge to theoretical ends: joining in the project to rethink the perennially thorny topic of subculture."-- Catherine Baker, University of Southampton, UK, Journal Popular Music, January 2009"Peter Webb's concept of milieu cultures provides one of the most sophisticated attempts to situate popular music." -- Keith Kahn-Harris, University of London, Popular Music and Society