Musicology meets Samantha Fox

Musicological research on popular music has received criticism for not adequately capturing how 'everyday listeners' approach music. This article responds to such critiques by analysing the music tastes of an 'everyday listener', de-identified here as 'HP'. As an 'everyday listener', HP diverges from established approaches in musicology: he listens primarily to music which has not been legitimated by the Anglo-American rock press or the academy (for example, his music collection privileges Samantha Fox over the Beatles); he is drawn to ephemeral 'moments' rather than engaging with each track holistically; and he openly ridicules some of his favourite songs rather than treating them as 'quality' music. The article argues that this kind of perspective is important for the study of popular music. HP's careful attention to specific musical details - details that he himself hears as fleeting, banal, or smutty - demonstrates that it is possible to engage with popular music without necessarily canonising it.