Social Networks and Music Worlds

"Social networks are critical for the creation and consumption of music. An edited collection, Social Networks and Music Worlds introduces students and scholars of music in society through the core concepts and tools of social network analysis. The collection showcases their use by sociologists, historians and musicologists examining, in turn, the punk, jazz, folk, classical music, Riot Grrrl, indie acoustic, R&B and calypso scenes. An overarching introduction is provided by leading network scholar and cultural sociologist Nick Crossley. The collection builds upon insights from canonic texts in the sociology of music, with the crucial innovation of examining musical network interaction via formal methods. With network analysis in the arts and humanities at an emergent stage, Social Networks and Music Worlds highlights its possibilities for non-scientists. Contributions hail from leading and emerging scholars who present social network graphs to represent different music worlds, locating individuals, resources and styles within them. The collection sits at the nexus of sociological, musicological and cultural studies traditions. Its range should ensure a large scholarly readership"--Provided by publisher.

Nick Crossley is Professor of Sociology and co-founder/co-director of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis at the University of Manchester. His most recent book is Networks of Sound, Style and Subversion: The Punk and Post-Punk Music Worlds of Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, 1975--1980, Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Siobhan McAndrew is an economic historian and Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Her DPhil. examined the evolution of institutions providing opera in modern Britain. She also researches religious and value change in contemporary Europe, and has written on the effect of recession on suicides for the SCHMI ‘Hard Times’ programme.

Paul Widdop is Research Fellow in Culture, Leisure and Sport at Leeds Metropolitan University. His main research interests are in the sociology of taste and consumption, focusing on exploring how social networks impact upon behaviour in the fields of music and sport. He is also interested in the importance of place and neighbourhood effects in these fields, especially in relation to their mediating role in developing cultural lifestyles and cultural communities.