Customer Reviews

Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Cultures: Theories and Methods

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I am using "Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture" as the primary textbook in an "Introduction to Popular Culture" class. Now, on the one hand it is clear John Storey's book is not written at an introductory level, which would have been a reason for me not to select it for my class. But this volume has two strengths that overcome that particular liability. The first is that Storey looks at six types of cultural texts: Television, Fiction, Films, Magazines & Newspapers, Popular Music, and Consumption (a.k.a. shopping). That pretty much covers everything you would want to look at in an introduction pop culture class so that students can get excited (relatively speaking) about analyzing their favorite television show or CD. The second strength is that each chapter focuses on two or three key concepts/theories. For example, with television Storey looks at Hall's notions of encoding/decoding television discourse, how television represents the ideology of mass culture, and how there are competing economies of television. So even if the writing level is for the advances student (quality), students being introduced to cultural studies are being presented with only a few concepts to absorb (quantity). Even if he is writing chapters rather than providing essays, each chapter does offer a specific case study (e.g., James Bond novels) that will facilitate student comprehension of the concepts, which they, in turn, should be able to apply in their own papers. Storey does have another volume that is specifically "An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture," but it is structured by theories (culturalism, structuralism, Marxism, etc.). Ideally I would like to be working with a book from Storey that had the structure of the book I am using with the writing style of the other, but clearly you have a choice here as to which way you can go given both your preferences and the level of your course. Storey does a nice job of explicating these concepts without rendering personal judgments, which I think is important when you are trying to get students to actually use such analytical tools. Final note: Storey's "Cultural Theory & Popular Culture: A Reader" is intended as a companion volume for his "Introduction" text and not this one.

Remember the theme song from James Bond, A Spy Who Loved Me? "Nobody does it better, though sometimes I wish someone would..." Well, much as I liked John Storey's study, when it comes to popular culture studies there is an even better study around. So together with a recommendation for Storey's book, here is an even more enthusiastic recommendation for Peter Swirski's "From Lowbrow to Nobrow" (2006), a book that puts all the hard facts (and insightful interpretations) of "nobrow" and popular culture right at your fingertips. Happy reading to readers of both.