Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Introduction; Acknowledgments; Foreword: the ideology of autonomous art Janet Wolff; 1. The blasphemy of talking politics Bach Year Susan McClary; 2. Music, domestic life and cultural chauvinism: images of British subjects at home in India Richard Leppert; 3. On grounding Chopin Rose Rosengard Subotnik; 4. Towards an aesthetic of popular music Simon Frith; 5. Music and male hegemony John Shepherd; 6. The sound of music in the era of its electronic reproducibility John Mowitt; Index.

Promotional Information

A provocative volume of essays challenging the view that music occupies an autonomous aesthetic sphere.

Reviews

'Among the year's most stimulating reading material' The Observer 'This is an important book, crowded ... with new ideas and arguments that challenge many of our assumptions.' The Musical Times ' ... most rewarding ... As a collection of humanistic scholarship that amplifies the best sociological tradition ... it is highly recommended.' Contemporary Sociology