An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture

Rating:
Summary: Poor Writing and Filled with Opinion
Review: I recently read the book and I felt that it lacked in clarity and was not well written. Although the topics found in the book provide a good introduction to cultural theory. This text is used as a college text at my school and I am not the only one to complain. The author also seems to have many strong opinions that take away from the professional quality, and they really have no place in an introductory book.

Rating:
Summary: nice introduction to a maddeningly diverse topic
Review: I'd just like to comment on the previous reviewer's comments -- it's true that Storey doesn't keep his opinions secret, but I think his presentation of the various theories is extremely lucid, even when he goes on to smash them to pieces (which only happens in a few cases anyway, in the chapter on Matthew Arnold and the Leavises, and in the last part on the academic debates).
This book is a clear and useful introduction to the subject from a pro-popcular culture perspective. However, if you already have some idea about structuralism, postmodernism, the Frankfurt School etc., it's probably best to skip it and get the accompanying Reader which gives much more depth (and primary literture instead of pre-digested comments). Otherwise start with the Introduction and move on to the Reader.

Rating:
Summary: Introducing the competing theories of Popular Culture
Review: John Storey, a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Sutherland in England, gives you a couple of fundamental options in terms of introductory textbooks for a Popular Culture class. Whereas his "Cultural Studies and the Study of Popular Culture: Theories and Methods" is organized by artifacts (television, fiction, films, etc.), "An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture" is organized by competing theories (structuralism, Marxism, Postmodernism, etc.). Consequently, there is considerably more depth in regards to theoretical approaches to the study of Popular Culture, all of which are supported by a wide variety of first-rate examples drawn from the real world. Storey also takes great pains to lay out the various schools for each theoretical approach: e.g, the Classical Marxists, the Frankfurt School, the Althusserians and Neo-Gramscian cultural studies. Both his first chapter on the definitional issues of Popular Culture and his final chapter on "The politics of the popular" provide the contexts in which all of this theoretical material matters.

The second edition of this text includes new sections on popular culture and the carnivalesque, and on postmodernism and the pluralism of value. Five of the original sections have been expanded to include material on neo-Gramscian cultural studies, popular film, cine-psychoanalysis and cultural studies, feminism a reading, postermodernism in the 1960s, and the cultural field. Equally important, Storey has updated the examples drawn from popular culture texts. While this is an introductory text, I think it clearly is aimed at a more sophisticated student than Storey's other value. Additionally, the 2nd edition of Storey's "Cultural Theory & Popular Culture: A Reader" is specifically intended as a companion volume for THIS textbook, which was the winner of the Ray and Pat Browne Award of the Popular Culture Association. Whichever way you decide to go in terms of selecting a primary textbook for your Popular Culture class, having the other volumes is of definite value.