Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture

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This book does exactly what it says on the cover - it introduces and describes the main theories that are used to discuss mass culture in academic terms (and looks at ways mass culture can be defined). It covers commodity fetishism, structuralism, semiology, marxism, hegemony, feminist theory, and postmodernism. The author discusses critiques and developments of each theory, and elaborates on how more recent theories evolved out of existing ones.

The book doesn't attempt to illuminate these theories as if to a layperson. There are no real-world examples (other than the few that the theorists originally used in developing their theories). The theories aren't reworded to be easier to understand. The book is like a statement of position; here's where we're at now. This would make it a challenging read for someone coming across these ideas for the first time, and I'm not sure what market the book is aimed at. It seems too dense for a non-academic audience, not engaging enough for an undergraduate audience, yet too superficial and broad for a post-graduate audience.

The actual writing is excellent; succinct, well-structured and direct. There are copious well-referenced quotes so the reader can find the original source easily for further reading.

This would be a great book for someone who didn't study at all for the first two years of their degree, scraped through, suddenly realise they should already know about theories that engage with popular culture, and need a one-book catch-up primer.

I learned so much from this book because it is a readable survey of important ideas and thinkers. The course I used it for was entitled "Popular Culture and Religion" and this provided the theoretical framework for the religion aspect of the class. I still find myself thinking of this work.