Reflecting the growing interest in popular music from the developing world, this unique book is the first to examine all major non-Western urban music styles, from increasingly familiar genres like reggae and salsa, to the lesser-known regional styles of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, non-Western Europe (Greece, Yugoslavia, Portugal), Asia, and the Near East. Manuel establishes parameters that distinguish popular music from both folk and classical music, defining popular music as music created with the mass media in mind and reproduced on a large scale basis as a salable commodity for wide public consumption. While emphasizing stylistic analysis and historical development, he also treats the diverse popular musics as sites for the negotiation and mediation of the dialectics of nationalism and acculturation, tradition and modernity, urban and rural aesthetics, and grassroots spontaneity and corporate or bureaucratic manipulation. With its encyclopedic
syntheses of earlier studies and extensive original research, Manuel's book will be an invaluable source for general readers and students of ethnology, popular music, and contemporary culture.
Industry Reviews
"An excellent supplementary text for courses dealing with non-Western music. Manuel provides a good balance of social and cultural background with specific musical examples. This book will be recommended reading for all of my survey courses in ethnomusicology."--Michael Largey, Michigan State University
"Comes a lot closer than any reasonable person could have hoped to getting the scoop on an enormous, fragmented, and recondite subject....What you already know he gets right; what you don't know amazes you....Because he's gathered his facts so intelligently and presented them so clearly, he's always readable and often fascinating. You don't have to kid yourself into enjoying all these alien genres to love their stories....Anybody with a yen to expound on the
dehumanizing depredations of the culture industry should be forced to read this book. And so should anybody who believes the world is one big global village after all."--Robert Christgau, The Village
Voice
"Certainly the most useful text I know of for leading pop music aficionados into an engagement with musics of the world."--Andrew Buchman, Evergreen State College
"It would be difficult to imagine a more ambitious and timely piece of ethnomusicological scholarship than Manuel's engaging and sympathetic overview....The text is thoroughly documented with reliable, contemporary references; the glossary is a valuable reference tool in itself."--Choice
"Given the amount of ground covered, this...book is surprisingly readable, while its Notes, Glossary and Bibliography together provide an invaluable resource to those who wish to study specific musics....Certainly ought to be in the hands of all those involved in music education."--Music Teacher
"An excellent supplementary text for courses dealing with non-Western music. Manuel provides a good balance of social and cultural background with specific musical examples. This book will be recommended reading for all of my survey courses in ethnomusicology."--Michael Largey, Michigan State University
"Comes a lot closer than any reasonable person could have hoped to getting the scoop on an enormous, fragmented, and recondite subject....What you already know he gets right; what you don't know amazes you....Because he's gathered his facts so intelligently and presented them so clearly, he's always readable and often fascinating. You don't have to kid yourself into enjoying all these alien genres to love their stories....Anybody with a yen to expound on the
dehumanizing depredations of the culture industry should be forced to read this book. And so should anybody who believes the world is one big global village after all."--Robert Christgau, The Village
Voice
"Certainly the most useful text I know of for leading pop music aficionados into an engagement with musics of the world."--Andrew Buchman, Evergreen State College
"It would be difficult to imagine a more ambitious and timely piece of ethnomusicological scholarship than Manuel's engaging and sympathetic overview....The text is thoroughly documented with reliable, contemporary references; the glossary is a valuable reference tool in itself."--Choice
"Given the amount of ground covered, this...book is surprisingly readable, while its Notes, Glossary and Bibliography together provide an invaluable resource to those who wish to study specific musics....Certainly ought to be in the hands of all those involved in music education."--Music Teacher
"This is a most useful book, covering an immense amount of ground surefootedly, and I commend it to anyone interested in the nature of popular music, and the processes that give rise to its existence and forms around the world."--Blues & Rhythm
"An excellent book....A source of both information and inspiration."--Musician
"Excellent!"--Max H. Brandt, University of Pittsburgh
"Excellent, thought-provoking, and comprehensive."--John Myers, Simon's Rock College
"A much needed addition to the sparse but growing literature in this area of study....Sure to make significant contributions to our understanding of the process of musical change."--Notes
