Pop Cult: Religion and Popular Music

Description

At a time when fundamentalism is on the rise, traditional religions are in decline and postmodernity has challenged any system that claims to be all-defining, young people have left their traditional places of worship and set up their own, in clubs, at festivals and within music culture. Pop Cult investigates the ways in which popular music and its surrounding culture have become a primary site for the location of meaning, belief and identity. It provides an introduction to the history of the interactions of vernacular music and religion, and the role of music in religious culture. Rupert Till explores the cults of heavy metal, pop stars, club culture and virtual popular music worlds, investigating the sex, drug, local and death cults of the sacred popular, and their relationships with traditional religions. He concludes by discussing how and why popular music cultures have taken on many of the roles of traditional religions in contemporary society.

Rupert Till is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Huddersfield, UK.

... the useful concluding chapter gives a wake-up call to a Church that has lost touch with culture, and a well-argued case for how popular music is in part filling its place. -- Church Times Till strikes just the right tone, takes a balanced and fascinating approach to his material, and has written an incisive and accessible book on the subject. This book is highly recommended, not just for scholars of music and popular culture, but for undergraduates and casual readers as well. -- Marc DiPaolo, Oklahoma City University * Religious Studies Review *