Analysing Popular Music: Image, Sound and Text / Edition 1

by David Machin

Overview

Popular music is far more than just songs we listen to; its meanings are also in album covers, lyrics, subcultures, voices and video soundscapes. Like language these elements can be used to communicate complex cultural ideas, values, concepts and identities.

Analysing Popular Music is a lively look at the semiotic resources found in the sounds, visuals and words that comprise the 'code book' of popular music. It explains exactly how popular music comes to mean so much. Packed with examples, exercises and a glossary, this book provides the reader with the knowledge and skills they need to carry out their own analyses of songs, soundtracks, lyrics and album covers.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848600232
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	03/25/2010
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

David Machin is Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. He is co-editor of the journal Social Semiotics and has written five other books, including Introduction to Multimodal Analysis (Hodder, 2007), and News Production (Routledge, 2006), as well as co-editing the Media Audiences major work with Barrie Gunter.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Discourses of Popular Music
Album Iconography: Postures, Objects, Settings
Visual Composition: Typeface and Colour
Analyzing Lyrics: Values, Participants, Agency
Semiotic Resources in Sound: Pitch, Melody and Phrasing
Sound Qualities: Arrangement and Rhythm
Analyzing Genre: The Sounds of Britpop
Analyzing Music in Film
Analyzing Music in Video and Television
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Equipped with theories, specific examples, detailed analysis and a useful and concise glossary, Machin's Analysing Popular Music is a useful, practical and manageable toolkit for students with no prior musical knowledge who are interested in multimodal discourse, and for students in sociology, media and communication studies to analyse and appreciate popular music.

Haicui Zheng

A definitive guide to issues of textual analysis, representation and semiotics in popular music. Informed, instructive and refreshingly accessible; it boasts a host of original examples, exercises and invaluable resources
Bill Osgerby
London Metropolitan University

David Machin has the gift of explaining complex ideas in clear and direct language that will engage students and enrich their experience of music
Theo Van Leeuwen
University of Technology Sydney

A comprehensive and innovative addition to the literature on the analysis of popular music. Scholars and students will find this an essential reference text for future work
Brian Longhurst
University of Salford

David Machin's book will be invaluable for anyone who wants to systematically analyse the way that popular music is meaningful in the media. He provides clear, accurate, explanations of the ideas of other writers, and sets out helpful approaches to analysing popular music as a modern form of visual and sound communication. The book will now be on my recommended reading lists for both undergraduate and postgraduate students
Tim Wall
Birmingham City University

In this innovative and invaluable book, David Machin has attempted to address the areas of representation, textual analysis and semiotics in popular music. He presents complex ideas in a way that will be useful to students of media, culture and communications and to any scholars with an interest in why music is made meaningful but with no background in musicology... I would strongly recommend this book for any music and media students, and for anyone with an interest in developing a deeper understanding of popular music
Martin James, Southampton Solent University
THE Textbook Guide

From the Publisher