Abstract

The article offers an introduction to the themes and content of the special issue of «Cultural Studies» dedicated to studying the aural and sonic dimension of culture and society. Starting by considering the different traditions in social and cultural studies focussed on analysis of popular music, the authors trace the lines of continuity and fracture that led to the establishment, during the last decade, of studies of sound as a new and vibrant area of intellectual inquiry on the intertwined relationship between sound, culture and society. The introduction defines the main steps and the intellectual figures that contributed to the establishment of sound studies, paying particular attention on the variety and multiplicity of disciplines and perspectives involved in it. The article also notes that, on the national Italian level, the weakness in interdisciplinary convergence has certainly not helped to develop a shared framework where experimenting a fruitful intellectual interaction on sound cultures, thus this special issue clearly represents a significant step forward on this way. Finally, the article ends by outlining briefly contents of the articles that follows in the issue.