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Settling the Pop Score: Pop Texts and Identity Politics.

Article Excerpt
By Stan Hawkins. (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series.) Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2002. [xiv, 220 p. ISBN 0-7546-0351-2. $79.95 (hbk.); ISBN 0-7546-0352-0. $29.95. (pbk.).] Music examples, bibliography, index.

Stan Hawkins's book is one of a spate of monographs about popular music either recently published or forthcoming. Many of the authors share the conviction that meaning in music can be approached only by considering the music's context and claim that a work of art can be understood only by taking into account its social, historical, and political circumstances. Simply put, it is impossible to speak of "the music itself," because any analytical choices we make are necessarily reflective of the political and cultural imperatives operative in our society. Drawing heavily from literary theory, the so-called "new musicology" originally arose as a new set of tools for examining Western art music and questioning certain aspects previously accepted as givens. The dawn of new musicology coincided with a growing scholarly interest in popular music and this music--given its marked differences from art music in content, production, distribution, and reception--seemed to demand new analytical methodologies. With Settling the Pop Score, Hawkins aligns himself with this tradition.

The book is divided into six chapters: an introduction and case studies on Madonna, Morrisey, Annie Lennox, the Pet Shop Boys, and Prince. With the exception of chapter 3 on Morrissey, all of the other chapters rework and expand to some degree journal articles written by the author in the 1990s. Hawkins is concerned primarily with how these artists have challenged the stereotypes of sexuality and gender roles in society using pop music as a vehicle of expression, and attempts to...

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