Introduction

Any attempt to count the number of references to individual authors in the burgeoning field of popular music studies would be certain to find that Simon Frith is the scholar with the greatest number of citations. While in itself such a statistic is no more of a definitive guide to influence than positions in the pop charts, few would deny Frith’s centrality to the field. His career as a writer and teacher has been coterminous with its birth and growth, and the announcement of his intention to retire as Tovey Professor of Music at Edinburgh University – though not, we are sure, as an author and commentator – seemed an ideal moment to pay tribute to, and take stock of, his contribution to our understanding of popular music, its industry, its audiences and the plethora of discourses around it.