Abstract:

How should popular music scholars (or students of other popular art forms) embrace antielitism while avoiding the scepticism of theory it so often accompanies? I do not argue that theory is beyond reproach or that all theories offer useful answers to all questions. Scholarship should often include refining theories to improve their utility, requiring critical engagement with theory. Anti-elitism too often becomes at worst a dismissal of theory, at best a disregard for it. I discuss popular music scholarship and its value, with particular attention to “train-spotting” and criticism of comic books. If scholars want to understand human experiences (as I trust we do), theory can help us understand why humans do what we do and how our art reflects and affects those experiences.

Author: Esther Clinton