In this short book the leading German cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen puts forward a
fresh and original account of pop music. He argues that pop music is not so much a form of
music as a constellation of different media channels social spaces and behavioural systems of
which music is only a part. Its own logic of attraction is based less on compositions and the
expression of subjectivity and more on indexicality real or pseudo-involuntary effects as
recorded by sound technologies and on studio discipline and staging and hence on performance.
By elaborating his innovative account of pop music as a constellation Diederichsen develops a
theory that distinguishes itself from sociology cultural studies media studies and
ethnography while at the same time drawing on and encompassing them all.
