"This is a very fine piece of work, which makes an original contribution both to our understanding of popular music and to our understanding of the global cultural order. It provides a new perspective on how sounds are produced, circulated, and experienced."
John Street, University of East Anglia
"In this highly original book, Professor Regev considers how exploring pop-rock both taps and enriches sociological theory Regev's study is both empirically nuanced and theoretically sophisticated. It illuminates music as a fundamental and dynamic material of social life. As Regev shows, pop-rock's emergence is nothing less than the re-figuration of world culture."
Tia Denora, Exeter University
"Motti Regev expertly provides a much needed take on pop-rock, the field(s) in which it is produced and enjoyed, and it's global diffusion. He uses the case of pop-rock to cast empirical light on aesthetic cosmopolitanism and artistic legitimation. The result is a book that is highly informative and refreshingly engaging."
Timothy Dowd, Emory University
Pop music and rock music are often treated as separate genres, but the distinction has always been blurred. Motti Regev argues that pop-rock is best understood as a single musical form defined by the use of electronic and electronic instruments, amplification, and related techniques. The history of pop-rock extends from the emergence of rock'n'roll in the 1950s to a variety of contemporary fashions and trends - rock, punk, soul, funk, techno, hip hop, indie, metal, pop, and many more.
This book offers a highly original account of the emergence of pop-rock music as a global phenomenon, in which Anglo-American and many other national and ethnic variants interact in complex ways. Pop-rock is analyzed as a prime instance of "aesthetic cosmopolitanism" - that is, the gradual formation, in late modernity, of world culture as a single interconnected entity, in which different social groupings around the world increasingly share common ground in their aesthetic perceptions, expressive forms, and cultural practices.
Drawing on a wide array of examples, this path-breaking book will be of great interest to students and scholars in cultural sociology, media and cultural studies, as well as the study of popular music.