Miley Cyrus: Good Girl/Bad Girl


Book Description

Charting the controversial journey of a shy, chaste child star from America's Deep South: from early fame on the Disney TV series Hannah Montana to her sexually liberated pop image that later made headlines worldwide. Will reveal Miley's secret battle with a genetic heart condition and offer a behind-the-scenes expose of growing up on a farm near Nashville in America's Deep South and her transformation from God fearing farm girl to raunchy pop star. Exclusive interviews with figures from Miley's past, from close childhood friends to those who attended church with her in a quiet and close-knit village-like community and got to know her well. These interviews will help to separate fact from fiction, publicity stunt from personality growth, will explore the psychology behind her dramatic transformations and will ultimately get to the bottom of exactly what makes the multi-faceted Miley Cyrus tick.




Music Marketing for the DIY Musician


Book Description

Unleash your music's potential by taking charge of your career! In Music Marketing for the DIY Musician, industry veteran Bobby Borg provides a step-by-step guide to producing a fully customized, low-budget plan of attack for marketing one’s music, helping to propel independent artists and other players toward success in the new music industry. This third edition provides major updates: Cutting-edge social media strategies: Dominate TikTok, master Instagram, and conquer YouTube with the latest tactics to amplify your online presence. Streaming secrets unveiled: Unlock the gateway to playlists and skyrocket your monthly listenership with fresh insights into the streaming world. Updated roadmaps for record releases: Navigate your way to a triumphant album launch with foolproof strategies and revamped timelines. New data analytics: Learn strategies to make educated decisions about the latest music marketing. Future forecasts: Embrace music innovation by leveraging artificial intelligence, exploring NFTs, diving into the metaverse, and more. Written in an easy-to-read style, this is a comprehensive resource with many templates covering the complete marketing process and time-tested strategies used by the most successful companies. Also included are interviews with top professionals and updated stories and case studies. This indispensable book for students and professionals alike will help you perfect a complete marketing plan to achieve your ultimate career vision.




Leaders of the Pack


Book Description

In Leaders of the Pack: Girl Groups of the 1960s and their Influence on Popular Culture musician and music historian Sean MacLeod surveys the hundreds of girl groups that appeared not only in the United States but also in Great Britain during the early 1960s. This study corrects the neglect of their critical contribution of popular music history by exploring the social and political climate from which the girl groups emerged and their effect, in turn, on local and national music and culture. MacLeod organizes his argument around seven leading girl groups: The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Ronettes, The Marvelettes, The Vandellas, the Supremes and The Shangri-Las. These seven “sister” groups serve as the basis for a broader look at the many girl groups of the period, offering a roadmap through the work of the many stakeholder—the singers, songwriters, producers, and record labels—that the girl group phenomenon made possible. MacLeod also reviews the significant influence girl groups had on the many male bands of the 1960s, as well as their influence on the post-‘60s movements, from punk to new wave, ultimately serving as the template for the girl groups and all-girl bands that emerged in the 1980s. Finally, The Leaders of the Pack brings us to the present as MacLeod compares the original girl groups with female performers of today, drawing lines of connection and contrast between them. Leaders of the Pack is essential reading for students, scholars, and fans of 1960s music and culture. It will further interest anyone interested in women’s studies, modern American and British culture, and music history, with important forays into such topics as the Civil Rights Movement, second and third wave feminism, and post-war life.




Girl Positive


Book Description

Hailed by Sophie Grégoire Trudeau as a "call-to-action" in these highly policiticized times, Girl Positive showcases the diverse voices of girls across North America, and drawing on the wisdom of young women making positive change in their lives and communities, offer tools for families, friends and educators to assist this empowerment. Girl Positive takes an engaging, cutting-edge view of the cultural, social and political issues facing girls today. Looking closely at topics from social media, sexual violence, hypersexuality and cyberspace identities to girls transforming the world as leaders and agents of change, Girl Positive offers stories of struggle and victory, and brings to light where today’s girls are finding new paths to empowerment. Tatiana Fraser and Caia Hagel explore these insights and challenges with depth, compassion and a sense of adventure. The authors travelled from Montreal to Toronto, New Haven, Whitehorse, Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, Detroit and the Wemindji Cree Nation in northern Quebec, to hang out in coffee shops, dance studios, classrooms, gyms, skate parks, beaches and bedrooms, and talk with school girls, college students and young women in their early careers. Interspersed with their narratives is advice and input from experts in media, health, race and gender politics, sexuality, education and leadership. Each chapter also includes a Survival Kit, which offers tips and discussion questions for girls and the adults in their lives. Through Fraser and Hagel’s journey readers will learn how to better equip themselves to support girls (and boys)—as parents, friends, educators, mentors and activists. Girl Positive celebrates all girls, illuminates emerging culture and fresh politics, and shows us the future in the making.




Disney Channel Tween Programming


Book Description

Much has been written about the Walt Disney Company's productions, but the focus has largely been on animation and feature film created by Disney. In this essay collection, the attention is turned to The Disney Channel and the programs it presents for a largely tween audience. Since its emergence as a market category in the 1980s, the tween demographic has commanded purchasing power and cultural influence, and the impressionability and social development of the age group makes it an important range of people to study. Presenting both a groundbreaking view of The Disney Channel's programming by the numbers and a deep focus on many of the best-known programs and characters of the 2000s--shows like The Wizards of Waverly Place, That's So Raven and Hannah Montana--this collection asks the simple questions, "What does The Disney Channel Universe look and sound like? Who are the stories about? Who matters on The Disney Channel?"




Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion


Book Description

Conspiracy theories are a ubiquitous feature of our times. The Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion is the first reference work to offer a comprehensive, transnational overview of this phenomenon along with in-depth discussions of how conspiracy theories relate to religion(s). Bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and philosophy to political science and the history of religions, the book sets the standard for the interdisciplinary study of religion and conspiracy theories.




ECSM 2018 5th European Conference on Social Media


Book Description

These proceedings represent the work of researchers participating in the 5th European Conference on Social Media (ECSM 2018) which is being hosted this year by Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland on 21-22 June 2018.




In Search of Pharrell Williams


Book Description

First substantial overview of the life and career of Pharrell Williams, the foremost producer of the modern era, and performer in his own right. It follows him from his days growing up in Virginia, his meeting with musical partner Chad Hugo and formation of The Neptunes, through his collaborations with the great and the good of pop, rap and R&B, including Jay-Z, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Nelly and Kelis. It assesses his ground-breaking work with the radical rap-rock-pop band N*E*R*D, and his emergence as a solo superstar via Daft Punk's Get Lucky, Robin Thicke's controversial Blurred Lines and global mega-hit Happy. It delves behind the immaculate facade to find out what makes Williams one of the most driven and inventive musicians of the last 20 years.




Introducing the New Sexuality Studies


Book Description

Introducing the New Sexuality Studies is an innovative, reader-friendly anthology of original essays and interviews that introduces the field of sexuality studies to undergraduate students. Examining the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of sexualities, this anthology is designed to serve as a comprehensive textbook for sexualities and gender-related courses at the undergraduate level. The book’s contributors include both well-established scholars, including Patricia Hill Collins, Jeffrey Weeks, Deborah L. Tolman, and C.J. Pascoe, as well as emerging voices in sexuality studies. This collection will provide students of sociology, gender, and sexuality with a challenging and broad introduction to the social study of sexuality that they will find accessible and engaging.




Tween Pop


Book Description

In the early years of the twenty-first century, the US music industry created a new market for tweens, selling music that was cooler than Barney, but that still felt safe for children. In Tween Pop Tyler Bickford traces the dramatic rise of the “tween” music industry, showing how it marshaled childishness as a key element in legitimizing children's participation in public culture. The industry played on long-standing gendered and racialized constructions of childhood as feminine and white—both central markers of innocence and childishness. In addition to Kidz Bop, High School Musical, and the Disney Channel's music programs, Bickford examines Taylor Swift in relation to girlhood and whiteness, Justin Bieber's childish immaturity, and Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana and postfeminist discourses of work-life balance. In outlining how tween pop imagined and positioned childhood as both intimate and public as well as a cultural identity to be marketed to, Bickford demonstrates the importance of children's music to core questions of identity politics, consumer culture, and the public sphere.