Social networks are critical for the creation and consumption of music. This edited collection, Social Networks and Music Worlds, introduces students and scholars of music in society to the core concepts and tools of social network analysis. The collection showcases the use of these tools by sociologists, historians and musicologists, examining a variety of distinct 'music worlds', including post-punk, jazz, rap, folk, classical music, Ladyfest and the world of 'open mic' performances, on a number of different scales (local, national and international). In addition to their overarching Introduction, the editors offer a very clear and detailed introduction to the methodology of social network analysis for the uninitiated.

The collection builds upon insights from canonic texts in the sociology of music, with the crucial innovation of examining musical network interaction via formal methods. With network analysis in the arts and humanities at an emergent stage, Social Networks and Music Worlds highlights its possibilities for non-scientists. Contributions hail from leading and emerging scholars who present social network graphs and data to represent different music worlds, locating individuals, resources and styles within them.

The collection sits at the nexus of sociological, musicological and cultural studies traditions. Its range should ensure a large scholarly readership.

"The book amply shows the numerous methodological possibilities for the analysis of cultural fields through SNA. One undoubted merit is the broad use of mixed method research strategies. In fact almost all the chapters use more than one analytical approach, including, besides SNA, interviews, archival documents, on-line survey, ethnography, longitudinal data analysis and traditional descriptive statistics."
Andrea Gallelli, University of Bologna

Nick Crossley is Professor of Sociology and co-founder/co-director of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis at the University of Manchester. His most recent book is Networks of Sound, Style and Subversion: The Punk and Post-Punk Music Worlds of Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, 1975--1980, Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Siobhan McAndrew is Lecturer in Sociology with Quantitative Research Methods at the University of Bristol. Her D.Phil. examined the evolution of institutions providing opera in modern Britain. She works primarily on the social science of culture, and of religious, moral and value change in contemporary Europe.

Paul Widdop is Research Fellow in Culture, Leisure and Sport at Leeds Metropolitan University. His main research interests are in the sociology of taste and consumption, focusing on exploring how social networks impact upon behaviour in the fields of music and sport. He is also interested in the importance of place and neighbourhood effects in these fields, especially in relation to their mediating role in developing cultural lifestyles and cultural communities.