Abstract
Popular music is perhaps the most international mode of communication, yet social research on this phenomenon remains strongly national in orientation. Recent research begins to point to issues at the levels of the individual and the subculture (especially youth), and to functions for social groups such as identification, integration, and expression. Market forces, driven by the demands of youth culture, create a tension between international flow of popular music and the concern over preservation of indigenous national musics. The sound, more than the words of music, provides subcultural ties and boundaries, and might be studied by both social scientists and humanists in ways that complement content-oriented research on politics.
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