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Made in Scotland: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, politics, culture, and musicology of twentieth- and twenty-first-century popular music in Scotland. The volume consists of essays by local experts and leading scholars in Scottish music and culture, and covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of popular music in Scotland. Each essay provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book includes a general introduction to Scottish popular music, followed by essays organized into three thematic sections: Histories, Politics and Policies, and Futures and Imaginings.
Examining music as cultural expression in a country that is both a nation and a region within a larger state, this volume uses popular music to analyse Scottishness, independence, and diversity and offers new insights into the complexity of cultural identity, the power of historical imagination, and the effects of power structures in music. It is a vital read for scholars and students interested in how popular music interacts with and shapes such issues both within and beyond the borders of Scotland.
List of contents
Foreword
Selected Timeline of Key Events
Introduction
Simon Frith, Martin Cloonan, John Williamson
PART I: Histories
John Williamson
1. Stramash! When Pop Music Television Comes to Scotland
John Williamson
2. Doing It for Themselves: A Brief History of Scottish Independent Record Labels
Bob Anderson
3. Scottish Live Music History: The Conflict Between Culture and Economics
Kenny Forbes
4. Fascinating Rhythm - The Life of Scottish Jazz
Alistair Braidwood
5. Place of Light
Carla J. Easton
6. Riverside Festival, Glasgow: An Interview with Dave Clarke and Martin McKechnie
John Williamson
7. Performing in Gaelic: A Conversation with Joy Dunlop
John Williamson
PART II: Politics and Policies
Martin Cloonan
8. "Let There Be Rock" - How A Remote Scottish Village Reinvented Its Musical Heritage
Emil Thompson
9. Interview with Jill Rodger, Director, Glasgow Jazz Festival
Martin Cloonan
10. The Place of Popular Music Education in Scotland - Institutions, Access, and Responsibilities
Sean McLaughlin and Graeme Smillie
11. Jock Rock?: Putting Scotland into Scottish Popular Music
Martin Cloonan
12. Hip-Hop in Scotland: A Footnote in the History of Popular Music?
Dave Hook
13. "Indy" Music: Scottish Popular Music and the Constitutional Question'
Adam Behr
PART III: Futures and Imaginings
Simon Frith
14. The Fiction of Scottish Music
Simon Frith
15. An Interview with Alasdair Roberts on Being a Scottish Songwriter
Martin Cloonan
16. Re-thinking 'Scottishness' - Who, and What, Sounds Scottish?
Diljeet Kaur Bhachu
Coda: The World of Scottish Music
Simon Frith
Afterword: Music in a Future Scotland
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the author
Simon Frith is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh, UK.
Martin Cloonan is the Director of the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) at the University of Turku, Finland. He is also coordinating editor of Popular Music and sometimes sings in public.
John Williamson is a lecturer in Music at the School of Culture and Creative Arts, University of Glasgow, UK.
Summary
Made in Scotland: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, politics, culture and musicology of twentieth and twenty-first century popular music in Scotland.
Report
"Edited by Simon Frith, Martin Cloonan and John Williamson, this fascinating collection of essays from both academics, practitioners and cultural facilitators brings to life the ways that popular music is used by modern Scots to explore and perform a distinctive identity. As a description of the affiliations of modern Scottish popular music, this is a persuasive and coherent collection of essays."
-Jane Pettegree, Soundyngs: Conversations on the History of Scottish Music
"Simon Frith, Martin Cloonan and John Williamson, as well as contributing to the book themselves, have edited a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to the history, politics and culture of popular music in Scotland. In a series of essays and interviews which are organised into three themes, Histories; Politics and Policies; and Futures and Imaginings, they lay out an examination of Scotland's popular music within the context of Scotland being both a nation but also a part of the UK, and how that impacts on the complexity of our cultural identity, the history, and the effects of the power structures in music. Made in Scotland: Studies in Popular Music is a must have reference book for anyone interested in popular music, here in Scotland and beyond."
-Sheena Macdonald, The Drouth
