ABSTRACT
Popular music is a discursive and historical category. In the context of this book, it refers to the entertainment practices conveyed by transnational media for the use of a heterogeneous audience. Regarding theories for its analysis, on the one hand, the music industry and the global economy can mean selective control of practices and standardization (a favorite theme in sociology and social communications), and, on the other hand, the same technological supports (such as the Internet)—central to the consolidation and modification of the music industry— can open spaces of strengthening and relative autonomy for non-hegemonic musical practices (observable from the perspective of ethnomusicology). The means of transmission (oral, written, aural, or virtual), the communicational perspective (production or reception), and research topics (uses and functions, meaning, technique, language, or history) inherent in popular music to be researched is what determines the methodology relevant to its analysis.
