By drawing on the many music industry-led international health and wellbeing initiatives and the corresponding ubiquity of communicative health, social and environmental messages tied to the lyrical content of musical outpourings spanning the previous four decades, the reader is immediately invited to consider the centrality of popular music in human welfare at a global level. Capitalising upon on such instances further serves as a reminder of the everyday use of popular music in health and wellbeing and the crucial importance of the various interactions of place, culture and music, with reference to the vast array of contexts in which music is now experienced. In doing so, the editors lay bare the catalyst for this collection of essays. For what permeates the Foreword to this text are routine references that call for greater acknowledgement of the power of popular music in health and wellbeing and the pressing need to empirically contextualise and elucidate the inextricable links between music, health and place, in light of the many technological advancements brought forth by the digital revolution.
To this end, the reader is promptly encouraged to dispel the often commonplace, negative connotations of ‘popular music’ and often narrow focus on specific genres bound to particular cultures, via the inaugural provision of a broader and more inclusive definition. This marks a key elementary contribution of this text, the result of which is an expansive and eclectic mix of contributions from scholars from a variety of fields (e.g. geography, political science, ethnomusicology and media culture) distributed across three intertwining themes.
In Part 1 (‘Circulation’), six chapters seek to explore the subjective experience of wellbeing through the lens of artists, bands and consumers. In Chapter 4, for example, Andrews echoes the earlier sentiments of the editors with a shift towards the everyday use of music as a tool for emotion regulation, proffering much-needed evidence in the case for the everyday health-related benefits of popular music via an inspection of the deliberate use of positive themes that saturate much of the music of Noel Gallagher. What is particularly notable here is Andrews' use of a seemingly unlikely advocate for wellbeing by way of highlighting the problematic nature of earlier definitions of popular music that are often plagued by a tendency to overlook and even negate the place of popular music in health-related contexts: ‘it is too easy, if not inaccurate, to simply dismiss Gallagher's Oasis as being void of social agenda’ (p. 51). Andrews further asserts that much of Gallagher's reasoning behind the calculated usage of positively charged lyrics stems from a realisation of the unique potential of music as a force for wellbeing; a statement that resonates with contemporary academic discourse from scholars of notoriety in music psychology. This particular thread seeps into Cowell's subsequent exploration of the works of Morrissey and The Smiths (Chapter 6) where, by way of expansion, the author provides theoretical insight into the antecedents of music as a vehicle for increased self-esteem, with specific reference to notions of agency and control in one's deliberate use of music. In addition, the pivotal nature of place as ‘motifs for feelings and emotions’ (p. 66) becomes the focus of this particular section, where geographical locations and landmarks are exposed as fundamental to the communication of emotive content and equally influential in one's own internal state.
In Part 2 (‘Transformation’) we see this latter line of inquiry grow increasingly specific, where Kearns (Chapter 8) and Friesen, Talo and Blue (Chapter 9) investigate the role of music festivals in particular as a somewhat optimum environment for wellbeing, pertaining to identity construction and maintenance as engendered by the conjoined forces of culture and music, and thus a resultant feeling of belonging in that space. Themes of identity continue throughout this section with a rather timely nod to the ‘place of music in the place of dying’ (p. 145) where Bartel and Clements-Cortés (Chapter 10) extol the virtues of music as a tool for reminiscence, expression of identity, connection to others and, crucially, as facilitative in one's end of life journey. From there, a definitive shift towards the applicability of such work is notable. For example, in Chapter 11, Simpson highlights once more the importance of music in everyday life through his exploration of ‘street music’ as providing the backdrop for social interaction in public spaces, where densely populated urban environments are often typified by feelings of social isolation. Such findings stand in stark contrast to existing notions of street music as ‘disruptive’ and intrusive’ and, what's more, warrant a cautious inspection of the restrictions imposed upon street musicians and artists in light of these health and wellbeing outcomes – as identified by the author.
This trend continues into the final section of the book (Part 3: ‘Gatherings’) where Skinner and Masuda (Chapter 13) assert the need to provide new methodological paradigms in order to systematically and empirically unpick connections between health, music and place , arguing that much of the existing research lacks contextualisation, despite an outward acknowledgment of importance of geography. Through the successful application of ‘critical hip hop pedagogy’ (CHHP) as a ‘participatory method’ of investigation for health inequity, the authors invite researchers to consider related forms of sub-alternative genres of music as a window into specific populations and health problems. With this in mind, Whittaker (Chapter 16) is also seen to adopt this epistemological stance, through an investigation of musical experiences and outputs of individuals diagnosed with HIV in one South African province (Kwa-Zulu Natal), thus providing a subjective account of the experiences of those living with the disease and, ultimately, a much-needed humanistic perspective of the disease among a sea of biomedical research.
Indeed, from addressing global public health agenda items such as HIV to the celebration of the everyday use of music in health and wellbeing, the scope of this book is ambitious, spawning a number of innovative contributions in the relatively untapped area of music, health and geography. At times, clear overlaps between chapters are evident, with less explicit links between other sections upon occasion. However, this is merely a by-product of the inclusion of multidisciplinary works and naturally reflects the diversity of research areas encompassed. Similarly, the inclusion of such a vast array of topics does not allow for a more exhaustive account of each particular strand of research which may leave some specialist readers wanting more. However, such limitations are routinely acknowledged throughout and, what's more, serve only to provide fruit for further departure points in consideration of the importance of popular music – a research endeavour now long overdue. In this light, perhaps the main contribution from this book, however, lies with the unwavering commitment to the redefinition and importance placed upon popular music and the resultant exposition of the variety of research strands academic inquiry has thus far failed to address. We do indeed ‘underestimate the power of pop’ (p. 289).
