The power of music to influence mood, create scenes, routines and occasions is widely recognised and this is reflected in a strand of social theory from Plato to Adorno that portrays music as an influence on character, social structure and action. There have, however, been few attempts to specify this power empirically and to provide theoretically grounded accounts of music's structuring properties in everyday experience. Music in Everyday Life uses a series of ethnographic studies - an aerobics class, karaoke evenings, music therapy sessions and the use of background music in the retail sector - as well as in-depth interviews to show how music is a constitutive feature of human agency. Drawing together concepts from psychology, sociology and socio-linguistics it develops a theory of music's active role in the construction of personal and social life and highlights the aesthetic dimension of social order and organisation in late modern societies.

蒂婭·德諾拉（TLA DENORA），現為埃剋塞特大學高級講師。曾於1994年榮獲國際社會學學會頒發的“青年社會學傢”奬：著有《貝多芬與天纔的構建》Beelouoaid the Consrtction g Cens，1o05）一書，並發錶瞭大量期刊文章。