This book assesses sociological and cultural attempts to theorize the worlds of popular music production. It offers and develops a new theoretical matrix that can illuminate these trends in a more complex and instructive way.

Assesses sociological and cultural attempts to theorize the worlds of popular music production. This book offers and develops a theoretical matrix that illuminates these trends in a complex and instructive way.

"Looking at the music scene in Bristol, England, Webb considers both genres (such as neo-folk, trip-hop, and hip-hop) and the influence of the recording industry in order to illustrate how geography, genre, globalization, and economies influence individuals and subculures involved in the creation of popular music...Recommended." -- B.A. Hunter, Univeristy of Idaho, Choice "Many years of immersion in the challenging and idiosyncratic music scene of Bristol, UK have enabled Peter Webb to turn his empirical knowledge to theoretical ends: joining in the project to rethink the perennially thorny topic of subculture." -- Catherine Baker, University of Southampton, UK,Journal Popular Music, January 2009 "Peter Webb's concept of milieu cultures provides one of the most sophisticated attempts to situate popular music." -- Keith Kahn-Harris, University of London, Popular Music and Society