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That is, while similar to Peter Falk's character, Sanneh is a likeable sleuth in the end his musical tastes often tend, following Columbo's, to come across as agreeably middlebrow in pursuit of some higher goal (Columbo's is to catch the killer, while Sanneh's is to validate the genre). Kelefa Sanneh's I Major labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres i tries to apply some kind of controlling narrative to an esthetic category that is shambolic beyond any other. Bouncing between myriad genres, subgenres, and sub-subgenres, inserting elements of memoir along the way, following some threads obsessively while bypassing others altogether, neither is Sanneh's book really a history of popular music: it's his I own i history of popular music and how it has impacted his life. [Extracted from the article]

"Crooner: Singing from the Heart from Sinatra to Nas" by Alex Coles is a book that aims to reanimate the underappreciated history of crooning. Coles explores the crooner archetype and its influence on various genres of popular music, from disco to reggae to hip hop. While the title and chapter structure may suggest a departure from Sinatra, Coles consistently references and pays homage to him throughout the book. The author's passion for crooning is evident in the carefully crafted narrative, which balances personal insights with measured analysis. Although the book could benefit from a more extensive list of further reading, it offers a rich and vibrant genealogy of crooning that will appeal to both casual music fans and academics. [Extracted from the article]

A healthy popular music scene, it has been suggested, is a key indicator of a healthy society. To date, studies of popular music scenes have largely focused upon urban centers while, in contrast, music scenes in regional and rural contexts have received very little attention. This is in part understandable given the accessible nature of urban scenes to researchers who are often faced with the challenge of working with limited time and resources. Similarly, in smaller countries, for instance, the U.K., or more densely populated ones such as the United States, there is often a less well-developed concept of remoteness. However, in more sparsely populated countries like Australia, the distance between urban centers can be enormous, and even the concept of touring to the next town can be a significant undertaking. This article considers the imperative to study popular music scenes in regional areas. As a case study, it considers Central Queensland, and in particular the areas around the towns of Mackay and Rockhampton. Being Australia's second-largest state, Queensland covers an area of 1.853 million km2 – an area 2.6 times that of Texas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trot is a genre of popular music in South Korea (hereafter Korea) from the colonial period (1910–45), and it is still debated whether it should be understood as part of the native culture or as a component of the transplanted culture due to the influence on it of the Japanese genre enka. For 20 years after its liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Korea did not have any diplomatic relationship with Japan and banned all forms of Japanese culture, including Japanese popular music. However, since 1965 when Korea normalized relations with Japan, the question of whether trot should be considered part of Japanese or Korean culture—and therefore whether it should be banned or permitted—has been up for debate. For instance, the most famous song of this period, “Camellia Lady” by Lee Mee-ja, was banned due to its “Japanese color.” Nonetheless, trot was the most popular musical genre in Korea even after the country’s liberation from Japan; it was also the comfort music enjoyed by Koreans during the Korean War (1950–53). This article addresses the origins of this dispute by examining Korea’s political and cultural decolonization of popular culture during the postcolonial era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]