This volume of essays by the distinguished musicologist Charles Hamm

focuses on the context of popular music and its interrelationships with

other styles and genres, including classical music, the meaning of

popular music for audiences, and the institutional appropriation of this

music for hegemonic purposes. Specific topics include the use of

popular song to rouse anti-slavery sentiment in mid-nineteenth-century

America, the reception of such African-American styles and genres as

rock 'n' roll and soul music by the black population of South Africa,

the question of genre in the early songs of Irving Berlin, the attempts

by the governments of South Africa and China to impose specific bodies

of music on their populations, and the impact of modernist modes of

thought on writing about popular music.