Understanding Society Through Popular Music

Written for Introductory Sociology, and Sociology of Popular Culture courses, this book uses popular music to illustrate fundamental social institutions, theories, sociological concepts, and processes. The authors use music, a social phenomenon of great interest, to draw students in and bring life to their study of social life.

Joseph A. Kotarba is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Social Inquiry at Texas State University-San Marcos. He received his doctorate from the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Kotarba1s scholarly focus is the sociology of everyday life, and he works primarily in the areas of culture, health, qualitative methods, and existential social theory. His current projects include a study of the culture of translational scientific research, funded by the National Institutes on Health; a study of the delivery of emergency medical care to professional athletes and musicians; and the design of a sociological model of the pop music song. Dr. Kotarba is the author or editor of eight books, and ninety-five articles and book chapters. He is the 2009 recipient of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction1s George Herbert Mead Award for Lifetime Achievement. Dr. Kotarba is also the 2010 recipient of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction1s Mentor1s Excellence Award. His most recent book is Baby Boomer Rock ?n Roll Fans:The Music Never Ends (Scarecrow Press, 2012).

Bryce Merrill currently works at the Western States Arts Federation, a research, technology, and cultural policy organization, and has been instrumental in developing the nation’s first performing arts grant program for independent musicians, the Independent Music on Tour (IMTour) program. His applied research now examines the working lives of touring independent musicians in the Western United States. He is also a fellow at the Center for Social Inquiry at Texas State University–San Marcos.J. Patrick Williams is a sociologist who has studied and taught various aspects of media culture, pop culture, and subculture, with a particular focus on how they relate to young people. He is the author of Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts (Polity, 2011) and the editor of Authenticity in Culture, Self and Society (Ashgate, 2009), The Players' Realm: Studies on the Culture of Video Games and Gaming (McFarland, 2007), and Gaming as Culture: Essays in Social Reality, Identity and Experience in Fantasy Games (McFarland, 2006). He works at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Phillip Vannini is Professor of Communication & Culture at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC, and Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography. He is author/editor of nine books, including the recent Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place, and Time on Canada's West Coast and The Senses in Self, Society, and Culture. He is also editor of the Routledge series in innovative ethnographies.