Globalization, Music and Cultures of Distinction: The Rise of Pop Music Criticism in Italy

by Simone Varriale

Overview

This book is the first comprehensive account of how Anglo-American popular music transformed Italian cultural life. Drawing on neglected archival materials, the author explores the rise of new musical tastes and social divisions in late twentieth century Italy.

The book reconstructs the emergence of pop music magazines in Italy and offers the first in-depth investigation of the role of critics in global music cultures. It explores how class, gender, race and geographical location shaped the production and consumption of music magazines, as well as critics’ struggle over notions of expertise, cultural value and cosmopolitanism.

Globalization, Music and Cultures of Distinction provides an innovative framework for studying how globalization transforms cultural institutions and aesthetic hierarchies, thus breaking new ground for sociological and historical research. It will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in cultural sociology, popular music, globalization, media and cultural studies, social theory and contemporary Italy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137564498
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/18/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Simone Varriale is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Things Come Into Being.- Part I: Situating the Study.- 1. New Forms of Distinction, New Cultural Institutions.- 2. Globalization and Artistic Legitimation: Reconceptualizing Bourdieu.- Part II: Pop Music Criticism in Italy (1969-1977).- 3. Young, Educated and Cosmopolitan: A New Cultural Institution.- 4. Economic Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Ciao 2001.- 5. Political Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Muzak and Gong.- Part III: Evaluating Music and Music Criticism.- 6. Aesthetic Encounters: Evaluating Rock, Jazz and Soul.- 7. Music Magazines as Alternative Public Spheres.- Conclusion: The Struggle Goes On

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Varriale provides a compelling analysis of the field of Italian pop music criticism … . By outlining the particular struggles that occupied Italian pop music critics, the book offers general insights into the transnational dimensions of artistic legitimation and aesthetic hierarchy in a way that will be both accessible to newcomers and intriguing to experts.” (Vaughn Schmutz, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA)

“With this nuanced, detailed and clever study of Italian pop-rock criticism, Varriale enriches cultural sociology with a sophisticated and highly original contribution. … This brilliant study … is a very welcome addition to the growing literature on world pop-rock, a genuine contribution to cultural sociology at large, and to the study of current cultural cosmopolitanism.” (Motti Regev, The Open University of Israel)