Popular Music in Theory provides a critical introduction to the key theoretical issues which arise in the study of contemporary popular music. This book is organized in a way that shows how popular music is created across a series of relationships that link together industry and audiences, producers and consumers. Starting from the dichotomy between production and consumption which characterizes much work on popular culture, Negus explores the equally significant social processes that intervene between and across the production-consumption divide, examining the ways that popular music is mediated by a series of technological, cultural, historical, geographical and political factors. This broad framework provides signposts to various tracks taken by the sounds and images of popular music, and also highlights distinctive theoretical routes into the study of contemporary popular music. This volume is intended mainly for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in sociology, media and communication studies, and cultural studies. However, it will also appeal to those who enjoy thinking and talking about popular music and who might like to delve a little deeper.