Sonic Multiplicities

Through the lens of popular music in and from Hong Kong, Sonic Multiplicities examines the material, ideological, and geopolitical implications of music production and consumption. Yiu Fai Chow and Jeroen de Kloet draw on rich empirical research and industry experience to trace the worldwide flow of popular culture and the people who produce and consume it. In doing so, the authors make a significant contribution to our understanding of the political and social roles such circulation plays in today’s world—and in a city under cultural threat in a country whose prominence is on the rise. Just as important, they clear a new path for the study of popular music.

“" Sonic Multiplicities is an intriguing study of pop culture that doesn't take North America as its starting point and yet does not avoid analysis of political or cultural forms of dominance that affect and, indeed, produce these forms of "globalised" pop commodities. The authors are particularly attentive to the formation and production of both the national and diasporic subject, consistently grounding these subjects in temporal and spatial circumstances, especially or even when these circumstances are stable, shifting, or ambivalent. It manages to trouble notions of a radical or emancipatory potential in pop culture without demeaning either the cultural workers or the consumers-indeed, recognising that subjects and producers of popular culture using the internet as a platform are most often both."”

'An intriguing study of pop culture' 

-- Pop Matters, Subashini Navaratnam

'A rich and fascinating analysis of Hong Kong popular music ... a much-welcome addition to the study of Hong Kong culture. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Hong Kong popular music in particular and popular culture in general.'

-- Chun-Yi Lee, China Information

'Sonic Multiplicities is an exciting read for anyone who is interested in Hong Kong pop, Chinese popular music, or Chinese popular culture in general.' 

-- Qian Wang, International Journal of Communication

'The intellectual strength of Sonic Multiplicities lies in its multifaceted approach, which examines both the production and the products of popular music. Each chapter discusses the ‘sonic multiplicities’ of Hong Kong Pop from different perspectives, ranging fromthe stories of individuals to the sounds of big hits, and to the voice of Hong Kong as a city. In doing so, the authors successfully contextualize these multiplicities in Hong Kong Pop’s global circulation. These attempts have valuable implications for both East Asian studies and popular culture research. The broad coverage of this book also makes it a particularly useful reference for anyone interested in contemporary Hong Kong music' 

-- Music & Letters, Shan Huang

'Refreshingly penetrating insights and critical dissections' 

-- Chinese Journal of Communication, Liew Kai Khiun

'Their book is full of fascinating detail, but its importance lies most of all in its resistance to the ascendancy of discourse centred around the allegedly irrevocable rise of China' 

-- European Journal of Communication

Yiu Fai Chow is assistant professor in the Humanities Program at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Jeroen de Kloet is assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

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