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Simon Fraser University
School of Communication
CMNS 321: The Cultural Production of Popular Music
Fall 2012
Lecture: Friday, 9:30-12:20pm, HC 1800
Course Website: https://wiki.sfu.ca/fall12/cmns321
Instructor: Robert Prey
Contact: robp@sfu.ca
Office: Tues 3-5pm, HC 2154
TA: Nawal Musleh-Motut: nsmusleh@sfu.ca
Course Description
The study of popular music can be read as signifying two different areas of study. On the one
hand, popular music can be understood as a particular genre of music, distinguishable from other
genres such as jazz, rap or rock. On the other hand, popular music can be interpreted as
containing both a number of musical genres and non-musical practices that have arisen alongside
the music. For the purposes of this course we will be adhering to the second definition. In doing
so we will be examining a variety of genres of music including punk, dance, rap, reggae and rock
as well as a number of institutional, cultural and technological practices that have come to shape
the production and consumption of popular music. This course will draw upon a number of
theoretical positions to better contextualize these multifarious and oftentimes contradictory
dimensions of popular music by historicizing and explaining the competing discourses, subject
positions, cultural practices and ideologies which constitute them. From the 19 th century virtuoso
to the current era of transnational digital production and consumption we will trace how
industrial organization, aesthetics & imagery, social protest & resistance, technology and
individual style have all come to be constituted through the production and consumption of
popular music. The overall goal of this course is to provide students with a vocabulary and an
interpretive framework to understand the variety of ways in which popular music is culturally
constructed.
Readings
All required readings are available through the course website
Assignments & Grading
Short Written Assignment/Oct 19 /Week 7 – 25%
Term Paper/November 30/Week 13 – 40%
Final Exam (Take Home) – 20%
Tutorial Participation – 15%

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Overview of Assignments & Exams
Short Written Assignment: Due Oct 19 —25%
1500-1750 Words
This assignment is intended to prepare you for the term paper by asking you to engage critically
with some aspect of musical culture by applying ideas drawn from the readings we cover in the
first half of the semester.
Term Paper: Due Nov. 30—40%
3000-4000 Words
The term paper is the major component of the course. Thus, it is important to begin thinking
about potential topics, directions or debates that interest you and begin to formulate ideas quite
early on in the semester in order to properly situate yourself with relevant research material. A
good place to begin (other than course readings) is to review the articles in various journals that
deal with popular music (Journal of Popular Music Studies, Popular Music, Popular Music &
Society) Please take advantage of office hours to talk about the ideas you’ve been thinking about
and to receive feedback and suggestions for further research.
Final Exam—20%
The final exam will be a take home exam. The questions will be handed out at the last lecture
and will also available on the course website after this lecture.
Tutorial Participation—15%
Tutorial participation is based upon both attendance and participation in tutorials. Your TA will
speak to this during the first tutorial.
Late Assignments
Late assignments are penalized 5% per day late (including weekends). Please speak to your TA
if an extension is required. Barring exceptional circumstances, absolutely no extensions will be
given 24 hours prior to the due date of any assignment.
Schedule of Lectures and Readings
Week 1
Sept 7: Studying the Cultural Production of Popular Music
Simon Frith (1987) “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music” in Music & Society: The
Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception, eds. Leppert & McClary.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 133-151.

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Week 2
Sept 14: The Pre-History of Popular Music - Music Becomes a Commodity
Tim Blanning (2008) The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians, and
Their Art (Cambridge: Belknap Press), 7-17; 30-45; 51-57.
Jacques Attali (1985) Noise: The Political Economy of Music, trans. Brian Massumi
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 3-21; 46-55.
Suggested Readings
Weber, W. (2004[1975]). Music & the Middle Class: The Social Structure of Concert Life in London,
Paris and Vienna Between 1830-1848. Burlington, VT.: Ashgate.
Johnson, J. (1995). Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Michael Chanan (1994). Music Practica: The Social Practice of Western Music from Gregorian
Chant to Postmodernism. London: Verso, pp. 138-161.
Week 3
Sept 21: Popular Music & The Recording Industry
Simon Frith (1987) “The Industrialization of Popular Music” in Popular Music and
Communication ed. J. Lull (Newbury Park, CA: Sage), 53-78.
Reebe Garofalo (1999) “From Music Publishing to mp3: Music and Industry in the 20 th
Century,” American Music, 17 no.3: 318-354.
Kembrew McLeod (2005) “mp3s are Killing Home Taping: The Rise of Internet
Distribution and Its Challenge to the Major Label Music Monopoly,” Popular Music &
Society, 28 no.4: 521-531.
Suggested Readings
Hull, Geoffrey P. (2004). The Recording Industry. New York: Routledge.
Mike Hobart (1981). “The Political Economy of Bop.” Media, Culture and Society, 3, pp. 261-279.
Qureshi, R.B. (2002). Music and Marx: Ideas, Practice, Politics. New York: Routledge.
Frith, S. & Marshall, L. (2004). Music & Copyright. New York: Routledge.
Week 4
Sept 28: Theorizing Popular Music - The Frankfurt School & Mass Culture Critique
Theodor W. Adorno (2002 [1941]) “On Popular Music,” in Essays on Music. (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 437-469.
Theodor W. Adorno (1991 [1938]) “On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression
of Listening,” in The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (New York:
Routledge, 29-61.
Suggested Readings
Walter Benjamin (1968) “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Illuminations, pp.
217-252.
Theodor W. Adorno. (2002) Essays on Music ed. Richard Leppert. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Richard Leppert (2005). “Music Pushed to the Edge of Existence (Adorno, Listening and the Question of
Hope).” Critical Inquiry 60, pp. 92-133.
Tia DeNora (2003). After Adorno: Rethinking Music Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Week 5
Oct 5: Theorizing Popular Music - Subcultures
Dick Hebdige (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge, 1-29;
73-127.
Suggested Readings
Sarah Thornton (1995). “Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital.” Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gelder, K. (2005). The Subcultures Reader. New York: Routledge.
Will Straw (1991). “Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular
Music.” Cultural Studies, 5(3), pp.368-388.
Week 6
Oct 12: Theorizing Popular Music – The Specter of Authenticity & Selling Out
Michael Coyle and Jon Doyle (1999) “Modeling Authenticity, Authenticating Commercial
Models” in Reading Rock and Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation and Aesthetics, ed.
Dettmer & Richey (New York: Columbia University Press), 17-35.
Frith, S. (1986). “Art versus Technology: The Strange Case of Popular Music,” Media,
Culture, and Society, 8: 263-279.
Peterson, Richard A. (2005). “In Search of Authenticity.” Journal of Management
Studies, 42(5), pp.1083-1098.
Suggested Readings
Hesmondhalgh, D. (1999). “Indie: The Institutional Politics and Aesthetics of a Popular Music Genre.”
Cultural Studies 13 (1), pp. 34-61.
Elizabeth Eva Leach (2001) “Vicars of ‘Wannabe’: Authenticity and the Spice Girls.” Popular Music
20(2), pp.143-167.
Allan Moore (2002). “Authenticity as Authentication.” Popular Music 21(2) pp. 209-223.
Tichi, C. (1998). Reading Country Music: Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky-Tonk Bars. Durham:
Duke University Press.
Mark Mazullo, “The Man Whom the World Sold: Kurt Cobain, Rock’s Progressive Aesthetic, and the
Challenges of Authenticity,” The Music Quarterly, 84 no.4 (2000): 713-1749.
Week 7
*****SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT DUE******
Oct 19: The Sight of Sound
Victor P Corona. (2011) Memory, Monsters, and Lady Gaga. The Journal of Popular
Culture, 44(2): 1-19.
Graham Carr (2006) “Visualizing ‘The Sound of Genius’: Glenn Gould and the Culture
of Celebrity in the 1950s.” Journal of Canadian Studies 40 (3), pp. 5-42.
Fabian Holt (2011) Is Music Becoming More Visual Online Video Content in the Music
Industry, Visual Studies, 26:1, 50-61.
Suggested Readings
P. Auferheide. (1986). “Music videos: The look of the sound” Journal of Communication,
36, 57–77.
Douglas Kellner (1995) “Madonna, Fashion & Image” in Media Culture. New York:
Routledge, pp. 263-297.

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Week 8
Oct 26: Globalization & Musical Culture I - Jamaica: Trench Town meets Babylon
Hebdige, D. (1987). Cut ‘n’ Mix: Culture, Identity and Caribbean Music. London:
Methuen & Co. pp. 47-102 & 136-148.
Michelle A. Stephens (1998) “Babylon’s ‘Natural Mystic’: The North American Music
Industry, the Legend of Bob Marley, and the Incorporation of Transnationalism.”
Cultural Studies 12(2), pp. 139-167.
Week 9
Nov 2: Globalization & Musical Culture II - South Korea: Chosun Punk & K-Pop
Stephen Epstein. (2000) “Anarchy in the UK, Solidarity in the ROK: Punk Rock Comes
to Korea” Acta Koreana 3.
Hyunjoon Shin (2009) “Have you ever seen the Rain And who’ll stop the Rain: the
globalizing project of Korean pop (K‐pop)”, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 10:4, 507-523
Sun Jung (2012). "Fan Activism, Cybervigilantism, and Othering Mechanisms in K-pop
Fandom." In "Transformative Works and Fan Activism," edited by Henry Jenkins and
Sangita Shresthova, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 10. Available
from: http://journal.transformativeworks.com/index.php/twc/article/view/300/287
Suggested Readings
Keith Howard, (ed.) (2006) Korean Pop: Riding the Wave. Kent, England: Global Oriental, 2006. pp.21-
33.
Doobo Shim. (2006) “Hybridity and the rise of Korean popular culture in Asia” Media
Culture Society. vol. 28 no. 1
Yeran Kim. (2011) “Idol republic: the global emergence of girl industries and the commercialization of girl
bodies”. Journal of Gender Studies. Vol 20, Issue 4.
Week 10
Nov 9: Music From the Margins I – Riot Grrrls & Disco
Angela McRobbie (1990[1980]). “Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist
Critique” in Frith & Goodwin (eds.) On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written
Word. New York: Pantheon Books, pp. 66-81.
Schilt, K. (2003). “A Little Too Ironic: The Appropriation and Packaging of Riot Grrrl
Politics by Mainstream Female Musicians.” Popular Music & Society 26(1), pp. 5-16.
Kai Fikentscher (2000) You Better Work: Underground Dance Music in New York City.
Hanover NH: University Press of New England. pp. 3-19, 93-108.
Kopkind, Andrew (1979). “The Dialectic of Disco: Gay Music Goes Straight.” The
Village Voice.
Week 11
Nov 16: Music From the Margins II – From Strange Fruit to Mos Def
DeVeaux, Scott K. (1997). The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History. Berkeley:
University of California Press. pp. 1-4, 17-31.
Rose, Tricia (1994). “Prophets of Rage: Rap Music and the Politics of Black Cultural
Expression” in Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary
America. Middleton CN: Wesleyan University Press, pp. 99-146.
Fricke, J. & Ahearn, C. (2002). “The Forefathers: B-Boy and DJ Culture in the Bronx”
in Yes Yes Y’All: The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip Hop. De

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Capo Press. pp. 25-65
Week 12
Nov 23: Technology & Musical Culture: Commodities & Clouds
Evan Eisenberg (2005) “Music Becomes a Thing,” in The Recording Angel: Music, Records
and Culture from Aristotle to Zappa, 2 nd Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press): 9-
29.
Jonathan Sterne (2006) “The mp3 as Cultural Artifact.” New Media & Society, 8 no.5:
825-842.
Jeremy Wade Morris (2011) “Sounds in the Cloud: Cloud Computing and the Digital
Music Commodity” First Monday. 16(5). Available from:
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3391/2917
Suggested Readings
James M. Curtis, “Towards a Sociotechnological Interpretation of Popular
Music in the Electronic Age,” Technology and Culture, 25 no.1 (1984):91-102.
Adorno, T.W. (1991). “The Curves of the Needle,” “The Form of the Phonograph Record,” “Opera & The
Long Playing Record.” October 55, pp.49-67.
E.W. Rothenbuhler & John Durham Peters (1997). “Defining Phonography: An Experiment in Theory.”
The Musical Quarterly 81(2), pp.242-264.
Week 13
*******TERM PAPER DUE********
Nov 30: Semester Review
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VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT PLAGIARISM
Please read this document very carefully - - especially section 3.0. If you do not understand anything on these two
pages, ASK YOUR PROFESSOR FOR CLAFIFICATION. If you do something prohibited by this policy and claim
that you did not know you were not supposed to do it or that you did not understand the policy, you will still be held
responsible. It is your responsibility to make sure you understand these regulations.
SUBJECT: CODE OF ACADEMIC HONESTY
1.0 STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE
All members of the University community share the responsibility for the academic standards and reputation of the
University. Academic honest is a cornerstone of the development and acquisition of knowledge. Academic honesty
is a condition of continued membership in the university community.
2.0 ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Academic dishonesty, like other forms of dishonesty, is misrepresentation with intent to deceive or without regard to
the source or the accuracy of statements or findings. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately
destructive of the values of the University; it is furthermore unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who
pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University.
3.0 FORMS OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
The illustrations presented below are considered to e representative but not definitive nor exhaustive of activities
which could be considered to constitute academic dishonesty.
(a) Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty in which an individual submits or presents the work of another person as his
or her own. Scholarship quite properly rests upon examining and referring to the thoughts and writings of
others. However, when excerpts are used in paragraphs or essays, the author must be acknowledged using an
accepted format for the underlying discipline. Footnotes, endnotes, references and bibliographies must be
complete.

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Plagiarism exists when all or part of an essay is copied from an author, or composed by another person, and
presented as original work. Plagiarism also exists when there is inadequate recognition given to the author for
phrases, sentences, or ideas of the author incorporated into an essay.
(b) Submitting the same essay, presentation, or assignment more than once whether the earlier submission was at
this or another institution, unless prior approval has been obtained.
(c) Cheating on an examination or falsifying material subject to academic evaluation. This includes the
unauthorized sharing of material, e.g. two or more students using the same textbook during an “open book”
examination; or the use of course notes or any aids not approved by an instructor during a “closed book”
examination; unauthorized possession or use of an examination or assignment. This also includes the
submission of identical or virtually identical assignments by students who studied together.
(d) Submitting as one’s original work, essays, presentations or assignments which were purchased or otherwise
acquired from another source.
(e) Using or attempting to use other students’ answers; providing answers to other students; or failing to take
reasonable measures to protect your answers from use by students in assignments, projects or examinations.
(f) Impersonating a candidate in an examination or availing oneself of the results of such impersonation.
(g) Submitting false records or information, in writing or orally. This includes the falsification or submission of
false laboratory results, documents, transcripts or other academic credentials.
(h) Stealing or destroying the work of another student.
(i) Removing books or other library material without authorization, or mutilating or misplacing library materials,
or engaging in other actions which deprive other members of the University community of their opportunity to
have access to the academic resources of the library.
(j) Unauthorized or inappropriate use of computers, calculators, and other forms of technology in course work,
assignments or examinations.
4.0 NOTIFICATION OF STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC HONESTY
All members of the University community have a responsibility to ensure that they themselves, and others, be
familiar with generally accepted standards and requirements of academic honesty. These shall be published in the
University Calendar and in the Registration Handbook. Ignorance of these standards will not preclude the
imposition of penalties for academic dishonesty.
Course outlines and course instructors are expected to inform students at the beginning of the semester of any
special criteria of academic honesty pertinent to the class or course. Failure of a course instructor to provide such
special information does not in any way exempt a student from penalties imposed by or on behalf of the University
under the general guidelines noted in 3.0 above.
5.0 PROCEDURES AND PENALTIES
5.1 PROCEDURES
Procedures to be followed by the University in imposing a penalty for acts of academic dishonesty or an appeal
therefrom are detailed in the policy establishing the University Board on Student Discipline and in the policy
establishing the Senate Committee on Disciplinary Appeals respectively.
5.2 TYPES OF PENALTY
Penalties imposed by the University for academic dishonesty may include one or more of the following: a warning,
a verbal or written reprimand, reassessment of work, failure on a particular assignment, failure in a course, denial of
admission or readmission to the University, forfeiture of University awards or financial assistance, suspension or
expulsion from the University.
5.3 DETERMINATION OF PENALTIES
In deciding on the appropriate sanction to be imposed for an act of academic dishonesty, consideration may be given
to the following factors:
(a) the extent of the dishonesty;
(b) the inadvertent or the deliberate character of the dishonesty;
(c) the importance of the work in question as a component of the course or program;
(d) whether the act in question is an isolated incident or part of repeated acts of academic dishonesty; and
(e) any other mitigating or aggravating circumstances.
It is your responsibility to make sure you understand these regulations. Please read each section very carefully. If
you do not understand any part of the regulations, ASK YOUR PROFESSOR FOR CLARIFICATION.
In your term papers and written work, you must give proper references for your sources. If you copy something
word for word from a book or article, you must indicate that it is a quote by putting it in quotation marks “like this”,

and you must identify the source: author, date, page number. Even if you don’t copy something word for work - - if
you paraphrase it and change some the words - - you must still identify the source: author, date, page number.
You will be guilty of plagiarism:
- if you fail to provide proper references for your sources, including page numbers;
- if you do not put quotation marks around material copied from other sources (even if it is only a part of a
sentence!);
- if you do not identify the source of material that you paraphrased;
- if you copy work of another student;
- if you submit work that is identical to that submitted by a student you studied with.
If it is determined that you did any of these things, it is likely that you will suffer one or more of the following
- you may receive a failing grade in the course;
- you may receive a failing grade on the assignment you may be suspended from the university for one or more
semesters you may lose any financial assistance you were receiving.
This is VERY serious business. Make sure you understand the University’s policies!
T10.01 through T10.03 (available online at http://www.sfu.ca/policies/Students/index.html)
All incidents of Academic/Intellectual Dishonesty must be reported to the School’s Director
(Alison Beale), c/o her assistant, Brenda Baldwin (bebaldwi@sfu.ca 778-782-3470 room
K9683). Brenda has the relevant forms to complete. Copies of the form are then
forwarded to the VP’s office.
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