Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and Institutions

This is a highly original and compelling exploration of how popular music is made. The role of the musician is often camouflaged by commercial and marketing pressures and by the common assumption that the music simply reflects the musician's personality. Drawing on a wide range of ides from modern cultural studies, and examining musical texts from across the twentieth century, Jason Toynbee provides a lively reevaluation of what musicians actually do when they create popular songs. Jason Toynbee is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at The Open University, UK. This is a highly original and compelling exploration of how popular music is made. The role of the musician is often camouflaged by commercial and marketing pressures and by the common assumption that the music simply reflects the musician's personality. Drawing on a wide range of ides from modern cultural studies, and examining musical texts from across the twentieth century, Jason Toynbee provides a lively reevaluation of what musicians actually do when they create popular songs. This is a highly original and compelling exploration of how popular music is made. The role of the musician is often camouflaged by commercial and marketing pressures and by the common assumption that the music simply reflects the musician's personality. Drawing on a wide range of ides from modern cultural studies, and examining musical texts from across the twentieth century, Jason Toynbee provides a lively reevaluation of what musicians actually do when they create popular songs. ''An important book ... Toynbee deals directly with the most interesting of all cultural studies questions: what is creativity?''—Simon Firth, University of Stirling, UK