"The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Popular Music is the first comprehensive analysis of the most important themes and concepts in this field. Drawing on contemporary research from religious studies, theology, sociology, ethnography, and cultural studies, the volume comprises thirty-one specifi
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cally commissioned essays from a team of international experts. The chapters explore the principal areas of inquiry and point to new directions for scholarship. Featuring chapters on methodology, key genres, religious traditions and popular music subcultures, this volume provides the essential reference point for anyone with an interest in religion and popular music as well as popular culture more broadly. Religious traditions covered include Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism and occultism. Coverage of genres and religion ranges from heavy metal, rap and hip hop to country music and film and television music." (Publisher description)
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"Christiaan scrutinizes existing concepts of cultural and creative industries, as applied in public policies in African countries and largely inluenced by programmes of intergovernmental development agencies. He then searches for empirical evidence of their true value for human development. He looks
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into the role of the music industries in Ghana and Burkina Faso in particular and in doing so is able to draw conclusions on the potential and deicits in the existing development approaches for these areas. He considers the cultural industries as a source for diversity that goes beyond the economic debate on growth, and looks into possibilities to build more organic relations between existing concepts, policies and practices. This research will undoubtedly advance cultural policy thinking and debate in Europe on three levels: it gives an insight into the way a European debate resonates and has a meaning in a global perspective; it advances the empirical understanding of the cultural industries in West Africa and; it challenges the extent to which European action can and should inform progress of the cultural industries elsewhere." (Foreword, page 10)
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"This paper makes a critical appraisal of the impact of folksongs in entertainment education. The paper adopts historical methodology and is anchored on the social learning theory." (Abstract)
"Collectively known as Hallyu, Korean music, television programs, films, online games, and comics enjoy global popularity, thanks to new communication technologies. In recent years, Korean popular culture has also become the subject of academic inquiry. Whereas the Hallyu's impact on Korea's nationa
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l image and domestic economy, as well as on transnational cultural flows, have received much scholarly attention, there has been little discussion of the role of social media in Hallyu's propagation. Contributors to Hallyu 2.0: The Korean Wave in the Age of Social Media explore the ways in which Korean popular cultural products are shared by audiences around the globe; how they generate new fans, markets, and consumers through social media networks; and how scholars can analyze, interpret, and envision the future of this unprecedented cultural phenomenon." (Publisher description)
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"Das Buch spürt all den akustischen Zeugnissen nach, die das 20. Jahrhundert prägten. Ein Großteil unserer Orientierung in der Welt gewinnen wir über das Hören. Das Ohr nimmt vor allem den emotionalen Aspekt einer Information auf. Manche Geräusche sind lebenslang im Unterbewusstsein gespeicher
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t. Klänge können Erinnerungsorte sein und Identität stiften. Musik kann aufwühlen und erregen. In 100 Beiträgen werden Geräusche, Töne und Stimmen, der Sound des 20. Jahrhunderts, rekonstruiert und analysiert: die Klang- und Geräuschveränderungen im öffentlichen Raum, die verschiedenen Aufzeichnungsmedien und Tonträger, Jingles und Soundtracks in Radio, Film und Fernsehen, Meldungen und Reportagen sowie musikalische Schlüsselwerke der Moderne und epochale Filme. Dem Buch liegt eine DVD mit über 80 akustischen Zeugnissen des 20. und beginnenden 21. Jahrhunderts bei." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Since the late 1990s South Korea has emerged as a new center for the production of transnational popular culture – the first instance of a major global circulation of Korean popular culture in history. Why popular (or not)? Why now? What does it mean socially, culturally and politically in a glob
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al context? This edited collection considers the Korean Wave in a global digital age and addresses the social, cultural and political implications in their complexity and paradox within the contexts of global inequalities and uneven power structures. The emerging consequences at multiple levels – both macro structures and micro processes that influence media production, distribution, representation and consumption – deserve to be analyzed and explored fully in an increasingly global media environment. This book argues for the Korean Wave’s double capacity in the creation of new and complex spaces of identity that are both enabling and disabling cultural diversity in a digital cosmopolitan world." (Publisher description)
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"Music is an omnipresent part of the often so-called great Indian election circus and much more than a mere by-product of what is the greatest democratic exercise worldwide. Songs and tunes are an integral part of political communication, strategically used by political actors which are confronted w
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ith an extremely complex and heterogeneous electorate. In the last decades, underlying changes in the media technology and the party system transformed music from a mere vehicle for messages on a regional level to a powerful tool of political advertisement for a nation-wide, professional planed and media based campaign. In course of this study the analysis of both, the historical development of Indian election music and the national election campaigns in 2009, clarify this trend. As part of their media based campaigns the two biggest Indian parties, INC and BJP, used the same song not only to entertain the electorate but – following patterns of brand advertisement – to convey different symbolic messages linked to opposing images of the Indian nation." (Abstract)
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"Static: Race and Representation in Post-apartheid Music, Media and Film critically examines music, cinema, social media and the politics of change after apartheid. It cuts across academic disciplines, the creative arts and the media and poses two central questions: Is South Africa changing for the
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better, or are we static? Is there too much static for us to hear each other clearly? Static provides key insights into recent media phenomena, such as Die Antwoord; the 2010 Soccer World Cup; Bok van Blerk; Tsotsi; Kuli Roberts' Sunday World column on 'coloureds'; revisionist film Afrikaaps and the University of the Free State's Reitz video scandal." (Publisher description)
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"Bongo Flava is a Tanzanian category of contemporary urban youth music related to four simultaneous developments: democratization, privatization, globalization and media digitalization. Stylistically, it comprises Hiphop and R&B as well as other styles which have been appropriated by local artists w
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ho rap or sing mostly in Swahili. This article explores this cultural phenomenon in the context of social upward mobility. From its very beginning, Bongo Flava has been regarded as a mouthpiece for the youth and the ordinary people. At the same time it has always been seen as a means to escape poverty and to achieve a better life. The narrative of the meteoric rise is derived from American Hip Hop imagination, as well as from local success stories. However, there are many players in the field of Bongo Flava with whom the aspiring artists have to cope. These include studios, producers, distributors, radio presenters, the press, the audience etc., but also their fellow artists from other crews and formations. This article looks at the social side of Bongo Flava, the bonds that are built, developed, or, eventually, broken up, as well as larger networks that exist between the artists and other players in the field, and the ways the artists use them for their goal of making their way up. It also examines how the artists cope with difficulties such as corruption, jealousy and greed in their social lives. It is argued that the experience acquired in the field of Bongo Flava can be seen as a form of capital that can be employed for other purposes too. This includes experiences with studios, the media, as well as stage experience and selfpromotion. However, it is also shown that gatekeepers in the radio and TV have a strong influence on artists' success, often disadvantaging the career path of independent artists, at least those with little financial resources. The study is based on field research in Tanzania from 2001 to 2011." (Abstract)
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"This article describes and analyzes a little understood Afghan Taliban propaganda tool: chants or taranas. These melodic refrains effectively use historical narratives, symbology, and iconic portraits. The chants are engendered in emotions of sorrow, pride, desperation, hope, and complaints to mobi
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lize and convince the Afghan population of the Taliban’s worldview. The chants represent culturally relevant and simple messages that are communicated in a narrative and poetic form that is familiar to and resonates with the local people. They are virtually impossible for the United States and NATO to counter because of Western sensitivities concerning religious themes that dominate the Taliban narrative space, not to mention the lack of Western linguistic capabilities, including the understanding and mastering the poetic nature of local dialects." (Abstract)
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"Stealing Empire poses the question, "What possibilities for agency exist in the age of corporate globalisation?" Using the work of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt as a point of entry, Adam Haupt delves into varied terrain to locate answers in this ground-breaking inquiry. He explores arguments abou
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t copyright via peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms such as Napster, free speech struggles, debates about access to information and open content licenses, and develops a politically incisive analysis of counterdiscourses produced by South African hip-hop artists. From empire stealing through their commodification of countercultures to the stealing empire activities of file-sharers, culture jammers and hip-hop activists, this book tells the story of people defining themselves as active, creative agents in a consumerist society." (Publisher description)
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