This series makes no claims to be comprehensive, or original or significantly thought-provoking, but it does give a smartly brisk overview of the major aspects of the topic today and made some smart connections between the various chapters. I like the focus of each chapter e.g. when examining the ABBA phenomenon in one early chapter,, it was done as an example of what Sweden did and the influence that it had, intially manifested by ABBA what they did was put in context. The chapter on the Battle of Britpop was one of the most entertaining with Damon Albarn (artisanal cheese maker) being wonderfully droll and clear-eyed about the whole process. Then role of Festivals was interestingly explored but I thought the chapter on the role of pop songs as an agent of social change was rather flat. the final chapter, about the Brill Building, NYC, the hit-creating factory was fascinating and touchingl worht a look