The guitar is one of the most evocative instruments in the world. It features in music as diverse as heavy metal, blues, indie and flamenco, as well as Indian classical music, village music making in Papua New Guinea and carnival in Brazil.

Andy Bennett Lecturer in Sociology,University of Surrey Kevin Dawe Lecturer, School of Music, University of Leeds

1 Introduction: Guitars, Cultures, People and Places, 2 The Guitar in the Blues Music of the Deep South, 3 Unplugged: Blues Guitarists and the Myth of Acousticity, 4 'Plug in and Play!': UK 'Indie-Guitar' Culture, 5 Handmade in Spain: The Culture of Guitar Making, 6 The Guitar as Artifact and Icon: Identity Formation in the Babyboom Generation, 7 Into the Arena: Edward Van Halen and the Cultural Contradictions of the Guitar Hero, 8 The Guitar Cultures of Papua New Guinea: Regional, Social and Stylistic Diversity, 9 Hybridity and Segregation in the Guitar Cultures of Brazil