| Popular Music and Narrativity: A Theory and History of Pop Storyworlds Contributor(s): Jeffery, Alex (Author), Vernallis, Carol (Editor), Perrott, Lisa (Editor) |
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ISBN: 1501343254 ISBN-13: 9781501343254 Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: September 2026 This item may be ordered no more than 25 days prior to its publication date of September 17, 2026 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Music | History & Criticism - General - Music | Instruction & Study - Songwriting - Music | Genres & Styles - Pop Vocal |
| Physical Information: 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Popular music is rich in imaginative storytelling, from the songs of music hall, and street narratives of hip-hop to the 1970s heyday of the concept album. As an even broader audiovisual practice, including music video, sleeve art and star-texts of performers themselves, the possibilities for unique ways of telling stories multiply - capturing the public imagination more recently are examples like Beyonc 's recent visual album Lemonade and experiments in popular music transmedia like Gorillaz. While music's role as soundtrack for other narrative media has been extensively theorised, relatively little attention has been paid to how narrativity works within popular music itself. By building on writing around narrativity from popular music scholars, applying concepts from the storyworlds literature to music and vice versa, this book connects these two disciplines. It provides fresh takes on well-known case studies from David Bowie and The Beatles to Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds, while introducing the reader to lesser known examples from global popular music culture. Providing a long overdue overview of narrativity in popular music culture, this book connects the dots between innovative and exciting examples across its history. |