Pop Culture

This is a rich collection of contemporary perspectives on how culture is produced and commodified using current examples from music, television, magazines, sports, and advertising. Incorporating a variety of theoretical frameworks, the book addresses, in addition, issues of social and cultural diversity in readings by key scholars that are accessible and provocative for both students and academics.

This is a rich collection of essays highlighting the complex relationship between cultural production and consumption using examples from music, television, magazines, sports, and advertising. Classic, contemporary, and newly commissioned articles examine the key themes and debates on popular culture by key scholars. Using a multitude of perspectives the book explores how culture is commodified and turned into profit, including a study of contemporary celebrity and fandom. In addition, issues of social and cultural diversity are addressed in readings that are accessible and provocative for both students and academics.

C. Lee Harrington is Associate Professor of Sociology and Affiliate of the Women's Studies program at Miami University of Ohio. Her articles have been published in several scholarly journals and she is the author, with Denise Bielby, of Soap Fans: Pursuing Pleasure and Making Meaning in Everyday Life (1995). Her current research interests include media audiences and death penalty cause lawyering.

Denise D. Bielby is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the culture industries of television and film. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles which have appeared in journals including Journal of Popular Culture, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.