Tracking Pop (Series)

In one form or another, the influence of popular music has permeated cultural activities and perception on a global scale. Interdisciplinary in nature, Tracking Pop is intended as a wide-ranging exploration of pop music and its cultural situation. In addition to providing resources for students and scholars working in the field of popular culture, the books in this series appeal to general readers and music lovers, for whom pop has provided the soundtrack of their lives.

Series Editors
John Covach, University of Rochester
Robert Fink, University of California, Los Angeles
Loren Kajikawa, The George Washington University
Jocelyn Neal, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Board Members
David Brackett, McGill University
Mark Butler, Northwestern University
John Dougan, Middle Tennessee State University
Walt Everett, University of Michigan
Susan Fast, McMaster University
Ellie Hisama, Columbia University
Nadine Hubbs, University of Michigan
Travis Jackson, University of Chicago
Serge Lacasse, Université Laval, Québec
Alan Moore, University of Surrey
Tom Porcello, Vassar College
Albin Zak, University at Albany

Showing 1 to 24 of 24 results.

Owning My Masters (Mastered)

The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions

Using hip hop to create new theory

The Bastard Instrument

A Cultural History of the Electric Bass

Centering the electric bass in popular music history

Tracks on the Trail

Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency

How music defines US presidential campaigns
 

Here for the Hearing

Analyzing the Music in Musical Theater

A scholarly music analysis book specifically focused on musical theater

Queer Voices in Hip Hop

Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance

Positions queer and trans hip hop artists within a longer tradition of Black queer music

Critical Excess

Watch the Throne and the New Gilded Age

Jay-Z and Kanye West’s death dance for capitalism

i used to love to dream

Fourteen tracks that use hip-hop creative and compositional practice to interrogate the idea of home

Soda Goes Pop

Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Popular Music

Pepsi turned pop music in commercials from novelty to norm—with profound effects on both American culture and commerce

The Beatles through a Glass Onion

Reconsidering the White Album

By Mark Osteen
Subjects: Music
Series: Tracking Pop

The first scholarly volume devoted to the White Album shines new light—and new appreciation—on the Beatles’ best-selling recording

The Pop Palimpsest

Intertextuality in Recorded Popular Music

A fascinating interdisciplinary collection of essays on intertextual relationships in popular music

Uncharted

Creativity and the Expert Drummer

Renowned rock drummer Bill Bruford analyzes the creative processes of drumming, using his own— and other famous musicians’— expertise and insights

Hearing Harmony

Toward a Tonal Theory for the Rock Era

By Christopher Doll
Subjects: Music
Series: Tracking Pop

An original, listener-based approach to  harmony for popular music from the rock era of the 1950s to the present

I Hear a Symphony

Motown and Crossover R&B

Investigates how the music of Motown Records functioned as the center of the company’s creative and economic impact worldwide

Good Vibrations

Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective

An international, interdisciplinary exploration of the band that helped define 1960s America

Krautrock

German Music in the Seventies

The first in-depth study of one of the most influential movements of contemporary popular music

Sounds of the Underground

A Cultural, Political and Aesthetic Mapping of Underground and Fringe Music

The first scholarly examination of underground music in the digital age

Rhymin' and Stealin'

Musical Borrowing in Hip-Hop

The first book-length study of one of the most essential elements of hip-hop: musical borrowing

Powerful Voices

The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella

The first scholarly account of the music and culture of collegiate a cappella

Bytes and Backbeats

Repurposing Music in the Digital Age

An examination of how musical activity has been transformed by contemporary production practices

Are We Not New Wave?

Modern Pop at the Turn of the 1980s

The definitive musical and cultural history of new wave music

Soul Music

Tracking the Spiritual Roots of Pop from Plato to Motown

A meditative exploration of the essence of soul in popular music

I Don't Sound Like Nobody

Remaking Music in 1950s America

A definitive study of the most important decade in post-World War II popular music history

Sounding Out Pop

Analytical Essays in Popular Music

By John Covach & Mark Spicer
Subjects: Music
Series: Tracking Pop

Brings together a diverse collection of voices to explore a broad spectrum of popular music

Listening to Popular Music

Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led Zeppelin

Argues that understanding aesthetic value is crucial to the enjoyment of all forms of music