Come on Down? Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain

"Come On Down?" presents an introduction to popular media culture in Britain since 1945. The essays in this collection discuss the ways in which popular culture can be studied, understood, and appreciated, while addressing key analytical issues and some of its most important forms and processes.
Published here for the first time, the essays in "Come On Down?" analyze some of popular culture's leading and most representative expressions: soap operas, game shows, children's television, popular music, comedy, advertising in the media, consumerism, and Americanization and popular culture in Britain. The diversity of both subject matter and argument is the most distinctive feature of this collection, making it a much-needed and accessible, interdisciplinary introduction to the study of popular media culture.
The contributors, many of them leading figures in their respective areas of study, represent a number of different approaches which themselves reflect the diversity and promise of contemporary theoretical debate. Their studies encompass issues such as the economics of popular culture, its textual complexity, and its interpretations by audiences, as well as concepts such as ideology, material culture, and postmodernism.

Come on Down represents an introduction to popular media culture in Britain since 1945. It discusses the ways in which popular culture can be studied, understood and appreciated, and covers its key analytical issues and some of its most important forms and processes. The contributors analyse some of popular culture's leading and most representative expressions such as TV soaps, quizzes and game shows, TV for children, media treatment of the monarchy, Pop Music, Comedy, Advertising, Consumerism and Americanization. The diversity of both subject matter and argument is the most distinctive feature of the collection, making it a much-needed and extremely accessible, interdisciplinary introduction to the study of popular media culture. The contributors, many of them leading figures in their respective areas of study, represent a number of different approaches which themselves reflect the diversity and promise of contemporary theoretical debates. Their studies encompass issues such as the economics of popular culture, its textual complexity and its interpretations by audiences, as well as concepts such as ideology, material culture and postmodernism.

Contributors: Dominic Strinati, Stephen Wagg, Deborah Philips, Alan Tomlinson, Janice Winship, Philip Dodd, Christine Geraghty, Garry Whannel, Graham Murdock, Alan Clarke, Rosalind Brunt, John Street, Dick Hebdige

Dominic Strinati, Stephen Wagg