ABSTRACT

The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage examines the social, cultural, political and economic value of popular music as history and heritage. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, the volume explores the relationship between popular music and the past, and how interpretations of the changing nature of the past in post-industrial societies play out in the field of popular music.

In-depth chapters cover key themes around historiography, heritage, memory and institutions, alongside case studies from around the world, including the UK, Australia, South Africa and India, exploring popular music’s connection to culture both past and present.

Wide-ranging in scope, the book is an excellent introduction for students and scholars working in musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies, critical heritage studies, cultural studies, memory studies and other related fields.

part 1|107 pages

History and historiography

chapter 5|9 pages

Sounding out popular music history

A musicological approach

chapter 6|12 pages

Reconstructing the past

Popular music and historiography

chapter 8|12 pages

What we did was secret

(One version of) the writing of popular music’s histories

chapter 10|11 pages

Screening popular music’s past

Music documentary and biopics

part 2|70 pages

Heritage

chapter 17|8 pages

‘Knowledge of Beatles songs and McCartney parts essential’ 1

Tribute acts, the music industries and the value of heritage

chapter 18|9 pages

Burning punk and bulldozing clubs

The role of destruction and loss in popular music heritage

part 3|69 pages

Memory

chapter 20|9 pages

Popular music and autobiographical memory

Intimate connections over the life course

chapter 23|9 pages

Popular music and commemorative ritual

A material approach

chapter 24|9 pages

Songs that resonate

The uses of popular music nostalgia

part 4|55 pages

Institutions

part 5|83 pages

Case studies

chapter 33|12 pages

Bollywood

Its histories in India, and beyond

chapter 36|9 pages

Sound archives in West Africa

chapter 37|12 pages

Palestinian popular music

How popular music becomes heritage

chapter 38|10 pages

Phillips’ Sound Recording Services

The studio that tourism forgot