Pop Music, Media, and Youth Cultures

In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the singer and songwriter Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” This suggests how important pop music is in the contemporary society, and highlights how blurred are traditional boundaries across all forms of art. Pop music is strictly connected to mass media, mass culture, the youth universe, and its languages. Pop/rock music is the bearer of new trends, while getting influenced by social and cultural events. It is the soundtrack of entire generation, accompanying not only several forms of entertainment but also the social commitment, need to belong, desire for recognition and limelight. Rock reflects the world of youth, its rituals and legends, and it represents an important tool to socialise and get together. Popular culture is the turf where change happens. Pop music is never permanent, it is ever-changing. Starting from the main theories about the sociology of music, the aim of this book is to investigate social changes, youth cultures, media, and pop music. It is a journey from the Beat Revolution (which includes art and culture from the 50s onwards) to the Bit Generation, which is all about digital technologies and software culture.