158 BOOK REVIEWS

This work is notably devoid of tables and correlations and other statisticalphenomena which are meant to be provided to legitimize the study as seriouseconomic theory blessed by econometrics. A few tables of raw data (especiallyrevenues and costs) might have been helpful and sweetened the intuition. Butotherwise it is refreshing to encounter a book, to some extent written in the styleof good institutional economics, where the author is able to convey some of theexcitement engendered in understanding the complex social pattern of a highimperfect market where price, valuation and social process are heavily intertwined.

MARTIN SHUBIKYale University,

New Haven, CT, U.S.A.

Simon Frith, Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music, Harvard UniversityPress, Cambridge, Mass., 1996, viii + 352 pp., ISBN 0-674-66195-8.

Deirdre McCloskey has lamented the fact that graduate students in economics com-posing a thesis on the history of British steelmaking feel no need to actually learnanything about steelmaking, the most recent advances in econometrics being suffi-cient background. In the spirit of McCloskey, I recommend to cultural economistsSimon Frith’s insights into the nature of popular music.

Frith begins by asking what we mean by “good” or “bad” popular music. Henotes that for the most part academics in cultural studies avoid the question; for allof the published essays about the cultural significance of Madonna, none indicatewhether or not her music is any good. But “[t]his book is about taking populardiscrimination seriously.” (p. 16). His thesis is that judging and conversing aboutour judgments is the essence of popular music culture: “[t]o grasp the meaning of apiece of music is to hear something not simply present to the ear. It is to understanda musical culture, to have a ‘scheme of interpretation.’ ” (p. 249). In common withmodern literary theory (and those with an aversion to theory should be warnedthat the book has more index entries for Barthes than Beethoven or the Beatles),“reading” (or, listening) is given the key role in analysing what is going on; wenotice that popular music criticism is mostly written from the perspective of thelistener, rather than the composer or performer.

He rejects the Frankfurt school view of popular culture as one-sided: “in examin-ing the aesthetics of popular music we need to reverse the usual academic argument:the question is not how a piece of music, a text, ‘reflects’ popular values, but how –in performance – it produces them” (p. 270). As the title indicates, “performance”is at the heart of how we listen to popular music, and the core of Frith’s argument“is not just that in listening to popular music we are listening to a performance,but, further, that ‘listening’ itself is a performance: : : ” (p. 203).

BOOK REVIEWS 159

Since Frith clearly distinguishes between “popular” and “mass” culture, he isnot much interested in sales figures or other aspects of markets. But a number ofquestions arise that should be of interest to economists.

Should copyright laws reflect the differences between art, popular, and folkmusic? Frith has written elsewhere, in his edited volume Music and Copyright(Edinburgh University Press, 1993), about the need for legislation which reflectsan understanding of how popular music is created, and how it is enjoyed. Usingthe basic framework for optimal copyright policy, as found in the various articlesby Landes and Posner, for example, how would an efficient legislation differentiatebetween musical genres?

How are tastes formed? Of all economists, readers of this journal are surelythose most uncomfortable with the dictum “de gustibus non est disputandum”.What are the implications of differing theories about taste formation in music for theeconomic analysis of musical production and consumption? How do the differencesin aesthetic response to art and popular music influence their markets, both on thesupply and demand sides? These are the kinds of questions cultural economists mustwrestle with, and Frith helps clarify which issues must be addressed in studyingthose questions.

Frith is an engaging writer, as one could expect from an academic who frequentlycontributes to popular, non-academic magazines and newspapers, and is not shyabout expressing his preferences in music, from the Pet Shop Boys to CeciliaBartoli. If there is any flaw it is that once we have followed Frith through hisobservations on all aspects of music performance and listening, including muchdiscussion on art and folk music as well as popular music, we lose the thread ofexactly what the book is about. This is often a problem with monographs whichinclude the acknowledgement that “some of the material here first appeared inarticle form: : : ”. Nevertheless each chapter contains valuable insights into thevalue of music. And what economist could resist a book which gives so muchregard (pp. 254–265) to the aesthetic theories of Adam Smith?

MICHAEL RUSHTONUniversity of Regina,

Canada

Carla Bodo and Rod Fisher (in co-operation with Sabina Addamiano) (eds.), Har-mony or Confusion for Culture in Europe? The Impact of the Single Market andof the Maastricht Treaty. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri – Dipartimento perl’Informazione e l’Editoria, Roma, 1995, 300 pp.

The book contains the proceedings of the seminar organised by the FondazioneCini, CIRCLE, ISPE and the Italian Associazione per l’Economia della Cultura,