A review by emmaisnotavampire
Globalization, Music and Cultures of Distinction: The Rise of Pop Music Criticism in Italy by Simone Varriale

informative slow-paced

3.5

Not much I can say about this book, I read it for some research I was conducting for university and found some really interesting things in here. Music criticism is not really my thing, but I was looking for an academic source to give a general presentation of the birth of Italian popular music; however having a look at past music magazines did make me think about all of those conflicting opinions and the contrast between the natural progressivistic tendencies in a recently industrialised and the overlap of foreign influences that were already progressing past that point, characterised by skepticism and a critical view of hierarchies and conventions, which made the general opinion constantly oscillate between "this is the next big thing" and "never mind this is actually shit", which I think still has repercussions in today's Italian musical discourse. I am really excited to further explore this topic!