ABSTRACT
As a musicologist, Derek Scott's role as general editor for Ashgate's Popular and Folk Music Series gave both established academics and those less familiar with the mysterious interface between research and publishing the boost in confidence needed during those heady years of the 1990s when popular musicology first made an impact on the music scene. They have become a truly international body of academics, and it is especially gratifying to see a third generation busy not only in universities across the globe, but also continuing to develop those arguments and ideas that are evident in the critical and theoretical approaches most relevant to contemporary society and its relationship to music. As Derek writes in his preface to the Ashgate books, the emphasis has shifted to cultural context, reception and subject position. Together these have conspired to eat away at the status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music.
