Particularly since the 1950s, cars and popular music have been constantly associated. As complementary goods and intertwined technologies, their relationship has become part of a widely shared experience-one that connects individuals and society, private worlds and public spheres. Popular Music and Automobiles aims to unpack that relationship in more detail. It explores the ways in which cars and car journeys have shaped society, as well as how we have shaped them. Including both broad synergies and specific case studies, Popular Music and Automobiles explores how attention to an ongoing relationship can reveal insights about the assertion and negotiation of identity. Using methods of enquiry that are as diverse as the topics they tackle, its contributors closely consider specific genders, genres, places and texts.

Mark Duffett is a Gales-listed academic author, known for two decades of research in popular music studies and fan studies. He is writer of Understanding Fandom (Bloomsbury, 2013) and Counting Down Elvis (2018), editor of Popular Music Fandom (2015), Fan Identities and Practices in Context (2018), and editor or co-editor of several special edition journals for Popular Music and Society, Rock Music Studies, and the IASPM journal.

Beate Peter is Senior Lecturer in German at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. As a member of the Research Centre for Applied Social Sciences at MMU, she is currently leading a team of researchers that investigate the role that music (acid house) played in shaping the social, political, and cultural landscape in Britain. She is also a convener of Manchester's Music and Sonic Studies research network. Her research interests focus on music and identity, in particular the role of affect and musical memories.