David Hesmondhalgh, “Why Music Matters” (Wiley Blackwell, 2014)

David Hesmondhalgh, “Why Music Matters” (Wiley Blackwell, 2014)

What is the value of music and why does it matter? These are the core questions in David Hesmondhalgh‘s new book Why Music Matters (Wiley Blackwell, 2014). The book attempts a critical defence of music in the face of both uncritical populist post-modernism and more economistic neo-liberal understandings of music’s worth. Hesmondhalgh develops this critical defence of music by exploring its importance to individuals, to places, to communities and to nations, eventually engaging with the global aspects of music’s role and position in society. The book seeks to argue against some common positions in music, reasserting the importance of embodied experiences, such as dancing, whilst taking issue with the idea of the rock star as hero. Moreover Hesmondhalgh shows the social position and social structures surrounding music, whilst remaining attentive to the aesthetic qualities of both genres and individual pieces of music. Most notably the book is ambivalent about much of the promises claimed by the advocates of music’s transformative potential, but is never bleak, retaining a refreshing realism about the capacity of music to matter to people, publics and nations across the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Episoder(2197)

Gilles Deleuze, "On Painting" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

Gilles Deleuze, "On Painting" (U Minnesota Press, 2025)

Charles J. Stivale (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University) and Dan Smith (Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University) join me to discuss: Deleuze, Gilles. 2025. On Painting. Edited...

26 Okt 20251h 39min

Tim Beasley-Murray, "Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life" (Manchester UP, 2025)

Tim Beasley-Murray, "Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life" (Manchester UP, 2025)

Which parts of life are serious, and which are a game? In Critical Games: On Play and Seriousness in Academia, Literature and Life (Manchester UP, 2025) Tim Beasley-Murray, an Associate Professor of...

25 Okt 202542min

Joanna Woronkowicz, "Artists at Work: Rethinking Policy for Artistic Careers" (Stanford UP, 2025)

Joanna Woronkowicz, "Artists at Work: Rethinking Policy for Artistic Careers" (Stanford UP, 2025)

What does it mean to be an artist? In Artists At Work: Rethinking Policy for Artistic Careers (Stanford UP, 2025) Joanna Woronkowicz, the co-founder of the Center for Cultural Affairs and co-director ...

23 Okt 202540min

What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters

What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters

What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money, work for justice, run marathons, sing in a choir, have children, travel the world? The things we care about in life—family, friendship, leisure ac...

23 Okt 20251h 4min

Eva Meijer, "Multispecies Assemblies" (Vine Press, 2025)

Eva Meijer, "Multispecies Assemblies" (Vine Press, 2025)

Animals speak. Plants do too. Seas and mountains are not a mute background to human actions, but have interests and agency. Many more-than-human beings are political actors. All of us are part of a we...

21 Okt 20251h 4min

Massimo Modonesi, "The Antagonistic Principle: Marxism and Political Action​" (Haymarket, 2019)

Massimo Modonesi, "The Antagonistic Principle: Marxism and Political Action​" (Haymarket, 2019)

What does it mean to be a political subject? This is one of the key questions asked by Massimo Modonesi in ​The Antagonistic Principle: Marxism and Political Action (2019)​, published as part of the H...

20 Okt 202543min

Bill V. Mullen, "James Baldwin: Living in Fire" (Pluto Press, 2019)

Bill V. Mullen, "James Baldwin: Living in Fire" (Pluto Press, 2019)

In the first major biography of Baldwin in more than a decade, James Baldwin: Living in Fire (Pluto Press, 2019), Bill V. Mullen celebrates the personal and political life of the great African-America...

19 Okt 202559min

Gianna Englert, "Democracy Tamed: French Liberalism and the Politics of Suffrage" (Oxford UP, 2024)

Gianna Englert, "Democracy Tamed: French Liberalism and the Politics of Suffrage" (Oxford UP, 2024)

Does good democratic government require intelligent, moral, and productive citizens? Can our political institutions educate the kind of citizens we wish or need to have? With recent arguments "against...

15 Okt 20251h 13min

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