Over 400 students take his sociology of popular culture and mass media course each semester, making it one of the largest courses at the University of Pennsylvania. In his research he uses ethnographic and other qualitative methods to study the production and consumption of commercial entertainment in cities. His books include Blue Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs (2003), On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife (2008), and American Zoo: A Sociological Safari (2015).