Asking yer friends = the new (old?) google!
I would normally punt this to Twitter, but it's more than 140 characters -- I have here a list of people who do rock/pop music theory from a Populah Music Theorist (I use the term "populah" to connote snootiness and constipation -- most of the book is THA DREGS, so I won't mention its title or author except to say it's way more in touch with capital-T Theorists than I am -- eventually I got so bored I went straight to the footnotes and was dismayed not to see any of the rock critics I would expect to see in a comprehensive list of "popular music critics," the most egregious omission being Meltzer).
Anywho, here is a list of THEORISTS that he lists -- do any of you lot know any of them? Which should I explore if I want to...y'know, learn cool shit? Excepting only Simon Frith, whom he acknowledges more than any other theorist save maybe Adorno (hmmmmm) [this can't be right, can it? "In Facing the Music, Simon Frith suggested the arrival of a curious entity, postmodernist pop, a value-free zone where aesthetic judgments are outweighed by whether a band can get its video on MTV and its picture in Smash Hits." Haven't read that one but it sounds...distinctly un-Frithian, though admittedly it's talking more about the production of music than its reception.]
George Lipsitz
Iain Chambers
Angela McRobbie
Richard Middleton
John Shepherd
Dave Laing
Lawrence Grossberg
Nelson George [I'm familiar with him by name but haven't read anything by him to my knowledge]
And some 90s people:
Andy Bennet
Marcus Breen
Mavis Bayton
Sara Cohen
Reebee Garafolo
Phil Hayward
Steve Jones
Tony Mitchell
Keith Nagus
Will Straw
Deena Weinstein
Anywho, here is a list of THEORISTS that he lists -- do any of you lot know any of them? Which should I explore if I want to...y'know, learn cool shit? Excepting only Simon Frith, whom he acknowledges more than any other theorist save maybe Adorno (hmmmmm) [this can't be right, can it? "In Facing the Music, Simon Frith suggested the arrival of a curious entity, postmodernist pop, a value-free zone where aesthetic judgments are outweighed by whether a band can get its video on MTV and its picture in Smash Hits." Haven't read that one but it sounds...distinctly un-Frithian, though admittedly it's talking more about the production of music than its reception.]
George Lipsitz
Iain Chambers
Angela McRobbie
Richard Middleton
John Shepherd
Dave Laing
Lawrence Grossberg
Nelson George [I'm familiar with him by name but haven't read anything by him to my knowledge]
And some 90s people:
Andy Bennet
Marcus Breen
Mavis Bayton
Sara Cohen
Reebee Garafolo
Phil Hayward
Steve Jones
Tony Mitchell
Keith Nagus
Will Straw
Deena Weinstein