Popular Music and Society is a quarterly academic journal published by Routledge. The journal was founded in 1971 by Professor R. Serge Denisoff, who edited it until his death in 1994. Articles contained within the pages of this journal cover music of any genre, time period, or geographic location and use any methodology or approach.

Click here for information about the following forthcoming special issues:

• Special issue on Bob Marley
• Special issue on Fandom
• Special issue on Michael Jackson: Musical Subjectivities
• Special issue on Popular Music and Marketing

David Sanjek, 1952 (?)-2011

Dr. David Sanjek passed away November 29, 2011, in New York City following a heart attack at the age of 59. Sanjek has served as head of the Popular Music Research Centre, professor in the School of Media, Music and Performance at Salford University in England, and member of the editorial board of Popular Music and Society. An online tribute to Dr. Sanjek is available on the IASPM website.

Richard A. "Pete" Peterson, 1932-2010

We are very sorry to report that Richard A. "Pete" Peterson died on February 4, 2010. He was 77. Pete was a member of the Popular Music and Society Editorial Board and a longtime friend of the journal. He was an internationally acclaimed sociologist, a founding figure in the study of the production of culture, and an eminent scholar of country music. Pete was a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University. An obituary is posted at the Vanderbilt website.

Ray B. Browne, 1922-2009

Ray Browne died on October 22, 2009, following a brief illness. He was 87. Ray was a member of the Editorial Board of Popular Music and Society and instrumental in the founding of the journal. In fact, he wrote the first article in the first issue of the journal.

Ray was Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. He was a prolific scholar, author, and editor. He was the founder, or one of the founders, of the Popular Culture Association, the American Culture Association, the Journal of Popular Culture, the Journal of American Culture, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Endowment, and, at Bowling Green State University, the Department of Popular Culture, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, degree programs in popular culture, and the Browne Popular Culture Library. An obituary is posted at the Bowling Green State University website at:

www.bgsu.edu/offices/mc/news/2009/news73185.html

Ray is survived by his wife Pat, who collaborated with Ray on most of the projects listed above and who was Managing Editor of Popular Music and Society for many years. Ray is also survived by his sons Glenn and Kevin Browne, his daughter Alicia Browne, daughters-in-law Cecilia Carter Browne and Shannon Welsh, son-in-law Lawrence Kreiser, grandchildren Julia Kreiser, Kira Browne, and Anna Kreiser, nieces Barbara Moran, Patricia Taft, and Susan Borders, and nephew Robert Burns.

Ray was a dear friend, colleague, and mentor to hundreds of people who have devoted their lives to the study of popular culture. He is irreplaceable.

Greg Shaw Award Recipient Announced

Nick Spitzer has received the Greg Shaw Award for Outstanding Contributions to Popular Culture Preservation. The Award is given by Popular Music and Society and was presented in New Orleans on 10 April 2009 at the annual conference of the Popular Culture Association.

Spitzer is creator and host of American Routes, a weekly two-hour radio program devoted to vernacular music and culture. American Routes is distributed by American Public Media and is heard on many National Public Radio stations in the United States.

Spitzer is Professor of Communication and American Studies at Tulane University, where he began as a Mellon Fellow in 2004. He is Adjunct Research Professor in Anthropology and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Spitzer received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Texas in 1986. He was Louisiana State Folklorist from 1978 to 1985 and served as Founding Director of the Louisiana Folklife Program. He helped create the Folklife Pavilion at the 1984 World's Fair, where he curated The Creole State: An Exhibition of Louisiana Folklife. Spitzer was Senior Folklife Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution from 1985 to 1990 and Artistic Director of the Folk Masters concerts and broadcasts from Carnegie Hall and Wolf Trap from 1990 to 1997. (Folk Masters is available on CD from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.) Spitzer was a resident scholar at the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. He previously received the Benjamin Botkin Award in Public Folklore and an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for American Routes. He was named Louisiana Humanist of the Year in 2006 for cultural recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. In 2007 Spitzer received a Guggenheim Fellowship for research on traditional creativity in Louisiana Creole communities.

Nick Spitzer's publications include Mississippi Delta Ethnographic Overview (National Park Service, 1979), Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State (Louisiana Folklife Program, 1985), Public Folklore (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), Blues for New Orleans: Mardi Gras and America's Creole Soul (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), and "Rebuilding the 'Land of Dreams' with Music" (in Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina, ed. Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). Spitzer directed the film Zydeco: Creole Music and Culture in Rural Louisiana (1986) and has produced or annotated two dozen documentary recordings. He has worked as a radio host at WXPN-FM (Philadelphia), WMMR-FM (Philadelphia), and KOKE-FM (Austin, Texas).

The Greg Shaw Award for Outstanding Contributions to Popular Culture Preservation is given in memory of Greg Shaw, a pioneering record collector, fanzine publisher, music journalist, and record producer. Nick Spitzer was selected to receive the Award by a selection committee consisting of Irwin Chusid, Erik Lindgren, Alec Palao, Bill Schurk, and Suzy Shaw. Popular Music and Society Editorial Board member Robin Roberts introduced and interviewed Spitzer at the Popular Culture Association conference prior to presentation of the Award.

More information about and previous recipients of the Greg Shaw Award