Mix It Up: Popular Culture, Mass Media, and Society

by David Grazian

Overview

A “non-textbook” introduction to the social significance of popular culture and mass media.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393929522
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/15/2010
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

David Grazian is?Professor of Sociology and Communication and Faculty Director of the Urban Studies Program?at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on popular culture and mass media, urban sociology, and ethnographic methods. In his research, he employs a variety of ethnographic and other qualitative methods to study the production and consumption of commercial entertainment in cities.?His books include?Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs?(2003),?On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife?(2008),?and?American Zoo: A Sociological Safari?(2015). He is currently writing a book on nonstandard urban workspaces in the new economy for the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Everything Counts: The Social Organization of Popular Culture 3

Chapter 2 We Are the Champions: A Functionalist Approach to Popular Culture 23

Chapter 3 Welcome to the Machine: A Critical Approach to Popular Culture 47

Chapter 4 Come Together: An Interaction Approach to Popular Culture 73

Chapter 5 We Can Work It Out: Creating Popular Culture 97

Chapter 6 Nobody Knows: How the Media and Culture Industries Work 119

Chapter 7 Living in the Material World: Cultural Consumption and Social Class in America 143

Chapter 8 Don't Stop Believing: Audiences and the Quest for Meaning in Popular Culture 161

Chapter 9 Uptown Funk: Popular Culture and Urban Life in the City 183

Chapter 10 Pop Goes the World: The Globalization of Media and Popular Culture 205

Bibliography 227

Credits 243

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

Mix It Up deftly unscrambles the diverse and fast changing world of mass media-made popular culture and its place in American society.

Richard A. Peterson

David Grazian’s book is a godsend for sociologists entrusted with teaching popular culture classes. It is an engaging, scholarly rigorous book. I would certainly recommend it to a colleague.

Omar Lizardo

Part fierce intellectual, part exuberant fan, Grazian delves beneath the noisy skim of pop culture to find patterns, meanings, and rituals. Mix It Up uses the power of the sociological imagination to pry the shiny lid off of everyday objects and artifacts, revealing social processes, political ideologies, and cultural mechanisms whirring away underneath. Written with humor and wit, this is a smart and lively book, interesting and accessible to students and useful and inspiring for instructors.

Matt Wray

From Bollywood to Botox, Shakespeare to Second Life, David Grazian uses a wide array of cutting-edge examples to illustrate how popular culture serves as a window into sociological thinking. His conversational writing style takes the reader through a fun and informative journey through the essential topics concerning media culture today.

Karen Sternheimer

This is the book I’ve been waiting for. Grazian deftly uses the lens of popular culture to introduce major themes in the sociology of culture, and the sociology of culture to illuminate key features of popular culture. Mix It Up is accessible but never dumbed-down, current while also historically rich, at once wide-ranging and shrewdly organized. Grazian’s text is the best I’ve encountered for undergraduate courses in sociology of culture and pop-culture studies.

Joshua Gamson

In Mix It Up, David Grazian pulls off the hat trick, three big scores in one book. He combines an encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture, a deep acquaintance with and understanding of sociological ideas, and a relaxed yet penetrating language to pass on what he knows to his lucky readers.

Howard S. Becker

Mix It Up is the real deal. David Grazian’s sweeping analysis of popular culture is witty, worldly, smart, and sophisticated. It’s more than an 'un-textbook,' it’s downright fun.”

Eric Klinenberg

Finally! This is the 'textbook' I’ve been waiting for—Mix It Up is perfect for teaching my classes on media and culture from a sociological perspective. David Grazian has assembled some of the most important scholarship on key themes and topics from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Students are going to love that the book is jam-packed with interesting, relevant and familiar examples, spanning recent history and including up to the very latest moment. Mix It Up is fun, fresh and exciting, and it uses all the right materials to engage students in a deeper examination of the meaning of media and culture in society and their own lives.”

Jill Stein