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Often considered the 'birthplace of the blues', the Mississippi Delta hosts a vibrant cultural economy based on blues music and culture. As this economy relies on embodied social experiences in place, health and safety regulations issued to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus had dramatic effects on musicians, business owners, and other cultural workers. In this paper, we examine the impacts of the pandemic on the cultural economy of the Delta, focusing on the city of Clarksdale, a primary destination for blues tourism. Situating the Delta's cultural economy and the blues music at its foundations within a broader historical arc of racialized struggle, we explore disparities in impacts of the pandemic on differently positioned individuals and groups. We argue that, while racial inequities continue to structure the Delta's cultural economy, local communities' responses to the challenges of the pandemic also demonstrate intergroup solidarities. Approaching these solidarities through Monica White's conception of collective agency and community resilience, we conclude that collective responses to the challenges of the pandemic in the Delta illuminate the potential for people from relatively privileged and marginalized groups in the region to come together to resist oppression and potentially drive social and political economic transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic somewhat unexpectedly promoted resurgent interest in the attractions of rural places, not least associated with nature, in many countries for especially urban people. The paper argues that this link was very fecund for many within the broad UK ‘folk music’ community specifically. After introducing COVID‐19's pro‐rural turn, the paper gives a brief overview of now substantial music geography scholarship, paying particular attention to what has been studied in respect of folk music, not least its examination of the latter's problematic links to English identities. It argues that folk music's resurgent rural links call for attention. It then introduces how the rural‐folk music COVID‐19 experience worked at three non‐exclusive levels. First, there was rural influence on the music being produced. Second, some musicians were also personally impacted strongly by rural experiences, evident not solely through their music. Third, some musicians developed original rural initiatives that saw audience members also gaining direct rural inspiration, not just via the strong growth in internet‐facilitated connections but through direct in‐place encounters with the musicians in the rural. Each reading is illustrated by two brief case studies, with the rural‐folk combination becoming increasingly alive and more‐than‐representational. It is suggested in conclusion that there remains a strong ‘life’ to these rural‐folk music connections in less predominant COVID‐19 times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine Auckland's 'City of Music' (ACM) place branding initiative, outlining its aspirations and gauging its contribution to the vitality of Auckland's underlying music scene. We draw on documentary evidence, media reports, first‐hand observations and a series of interviews with brand advocates and music insiders. The paper highlights tensions between the 'City of Music' brand and the understandings of those whose work, identities, daily lives and lived spaces are appropriated to give it substance. We conclude that ACM has injected resources into the Auckland music 'scene' but fails to represent faithfully its vitality and complex ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper calls for a recalibration of how cultural geography engages with music, lyrics, motion, and emotion. Within existing geographical work on music, research on the music itself remains scarce, with reflection on lyrics rarer still. This paper addresses this via a close reading of the work of the Glaswegian group, The Blue Nile. It examines how the trio – and especially their principal songwriter, Paul Buchanan – used lyrics as a means for articulating distinctive conceptions of movement and stillness. The significance of song-words themselves is considered, but so too is their mode of delivery, and their relationship to the enveloping musical settings they are embedded in. The importance of time, space and place in The Blue Nile's work is analysed and the methods by which they are evoked is investigated. The paper moves discussion on from well-covered terrain regarding music as a conduit for expressing youth focussed tropes, such as rebellion and speed, focusing instead on music's facility for voicing ideas of slowness and immobility, particularly in urban settings. In doing so, it demonstrates popular music's value for articulating sensations that are now being encountered with ever greater frequency, including those of stasis, drift, and disconnection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, leading music artists have been performing significantly fewer shows, in part due to growing concerns for their wellbeing, but also because of rising energy cost, environmental issues, and industry consolidation. As a result, many cities now host much fewer top ‘headliners’ artists and bands than before. This study investigates what being effectively ‘left off’ tours means for cities. Proceeding from industry data, it first quantifies the decline in the number of stops for large tours between 2010 and 2019, and shows that many North American cities increasingly find themselves on the outside looking in. It then provides insights drawn from interviews with city officials on both the negative and positive impacts of this trend. Namely, this study suggests that hosting fewer shows results in economic, cultural and reputational losses, yet also enable cities to grow a stronger local scene, design better policies, and develop distinctive new offerings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society is a whole formed by individuals with their biological, cultural, imaginary and intellectual beings. Therefore, the formation of societies, especially healthy societies, is closely related to the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual development of individuals. Many components from science to technology, from sports to politics, from literature to art have an impact on this development of individuals. Music is also a branch of art that comes to life at any time and everywhere in daily life, and also has an important effect on the development of individuals and therefore societies as a means of life tool. It is possible to see the unifying and integrating effect of music everywhere, from small communities to national states to multinational cultures and corporations. The fact that music appeals not only to the ear but also to the mind, heart and soul increases the effect of music on individuals and societies. Considering how actively music is used in marketing any product, person or idea, it will be clearly seen how important music is in terms of economy, society and politics. Since every subject that affects people can be associated with space and geography, it is inevitable for the geographer to be interested in music as a research area. While the scope of music geography is handled in the perspective of phenomenological approach in this study, the place and importance of music geography is explained in the context of studies on music geography.

Neste artigo, propomos um programa de pesquisa que, definindo como objeto a relação entre “paisagem sonora” e “ruído”, sugere que o campo da Geografia da Música pode estar melhor subsidiado pela incorporação simultânea de três perspectivas temáticas ou dimensões: ou “dimensões”: a física, a orgânica e a cultural. Ampliando a perspectiva cultural fenomenológica, buscamos empreender uma proposta de análise multidimensional sobre o comportamento espacial das paisagens sonoras que influenciam na produção de música e, consequentemente, na formação de identidades musicais. Amparados pela geografia dos ruídos como um desdobramento da geografia sônica, acrescentam-se conceitos fundamentais de acústica, fisiologia da audição e neurociência. Espera-se, assim, consolidar uma proposta teórico-epistemológica que promova pontos de intersecção entre as geografias física e humana, e a compreensão da música enquanto linguagem e enquanto fenômeno humano a partir de um fenômeno natural.

COVID-19 disrupted our lives, in-person events, creative networks, and the ability to fully thrive in music communities around the world. Researchers had already identified that local music ecosystems were under stress due to structural and economic challenges. This study analyzes beliefs and local transformations after the first year of the current pandemic based on the stories from 128 subjects-music community participants, change agents, and local leaders around the world-who participated in twenty-six focus group panel sessions during a three-day virtual conference in April 2021 and nine separate and specific geographic focus group sessions, recorded March through September 2021. Through these recorded conversations, we gathered insights into their differing challenges, transformations, and emerging music organizations. These documented discussions generated real-time rich qualitative research about changes around the world. Through qualitative analysis of the resulting data, we identified themes, differing regional models, and areas for future research. We also created a video archive to support comparative research for anyone looking to gain insights into our transforming current music environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Geographical Sciences / Coğrafi Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Cografi Bilimler Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MUSIC HAS BEEN CONSTITUTED IN RECENT DECADES AS A PROMISING FIELD OF RESEARCH IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE GLOBAL NORTH, AND MORE RECENTLY IN BRAZIL, CONTRIBUTING TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPACE AND CULTURE. I WILL DEVELOP THIS THEME ALONG THREE AXES. THE FIRST BRINGS A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS FIELD AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES FROM GEOGRAPHERS AND ETHNOLOGISTS. THE SECOND FOCUSES SPECIFICALLY ON ANGLOPHONE AND FRANCOPHONE GEOGRAPHIES AND THEIR MAIN AUTHORS. FINALLY, THE THIRD AXIS BRINGS A REVIEW OF THIRTY YEARS OF RESEARCH ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF MUSIC IN BRAZIL, EXPOSING THE DIVERSITY OF THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND INTERESTS. THE ANALYZED DATA REVEAL MORE THAN SEVENTY THESES AND DISSERTATIONS PUBLISHED, ORGANIZATION OF BOOKS AND SPECIAL ISSUES IN SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND EVENTS, EVIDENCING A RECENT INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THIS FIELD IN BRAZILIAN GEOGRAPHIC SCIENCE. IN THIS SENSE, I ARGUE THAT GEOGRAPHY HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE STUDIES OF MUSIC BY RECORDING AND ANALYZING BRAZILIAN SOCIETY AND ITS MUSIC FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ITS SPATIALITY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Studies - Social Sciences is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on the Tsoi Wall in Moscow, an iconic place on Russia's music map that appeared in Moscow in 1990 in memory of the cult Soviet rock musician Viktor Tsoi, to develop a framework for studying non-auratic music place – that is, places that are not connected with the biographies of musicians or musical events, but emerge directly from the experiences of visitors and fans. These places are constantly negotiated and only lightly formalized, but are nevertheless enduring. To analyze this type of place, we propose a concept of institutionalization "in becoming". The case of the Tsoi Wall reveals that light formalization (vague and changing positions and rules, and openness to different interpretations of a place and ways of using it) leads to the recognition of the place as a significant one and to its popularity. We put institutionalization "in becoming" in a wider context and juxtapose it with well-studied musical places in Europe and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the continuity of works on Music geography, the purpose of this article is to show the geographical dimension of the musical corpus of American singersongwriter Bruce Springsteen. Heir to folk music - socialized, politicized and spatialized music - Springsteen could be described as a "singer-geographer": a native of Freehold and Asbury Park, declining industrial and seaside towns of New Jersey in the 70s, and raised in a working-class environment, the artist recounts and describes, in his work, urban spaces, medium-sized and industrial towns, streets, the boardwalk, factories and urban peripheries, and all the social, cultural and economic issues involved (deindustrialization, ethnic riots, destruction of Main Streets...). Inspired by these places, people and communities, and national and local issues, Springsteen describes teeming and suffocating cities, but also movements, escapes and exoduses - necessary and uprooting - and sings a Promised Land - either real or mythical - that his characters often try to reach, in vain. Through a non-exhaustive thematic and semantic analysis of Springsteen musical corpus, we will show that this artist is a fine observer and analyst of places, but as well as an actor of these places, because his music influences territories as much as territories influence his music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses certain aspects of musical geography as a complex field of crossing musical content and musical, geographical and social space, social practices and system communication rules. Space music as the hybrid style and genre is layered mapping psychoacoustic phenomenon, sociological and cultural-historical coordinates in shaping the musical geography. It is presented by two aspects of this mapping: sound mapping in musical producing and sound making on autors like Brian Eno, and visually mapping, developed in the context of artistic publishing in production company ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) and its founder Manfred Eicher.

Memorialization on the cultural landscape is a common method of celebrating the legacy of an event or person significant to the history of geographical location. The Grateful Dead is a band that continues to define the ideals of the late-1960s San Francisco Sound through their music’s creative freedom and inclination toward experimentation. Although the original lineup of the Grateful Dead is no longer intact, the spirit of the music they created and their psychedelic appeal has been preserved on the cultural landscape. Despite differing reasons for naming their business after the band, hundreds of business owners in the United States have collectively preserved the Grateful Dead’s presence on the cultural landscape. In this paper we explore the distribution of businesses in the United States with Grateful Dead-related names, and how the presence of these business names enriches the cultural landscape with the memory of the band’s music as a product of the iconic San Francisco Sound. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The goal of this paper was to contribute to the interdisciplinary research that linked place and music by conducting a brief geography of rap. Rap music grew from the isolated Bronx in the 1970s and became a mainstay in popular culture today. Hip hop music was noted for its strong sense of place, as rap credibility (what 'hood do you represented), identities (e.g. Flo Rida), and local slang (e.g. sippin' sizzurp in Houston) were often geographically-based. This research described the various spatial meanings of rap, mapped the diffusion of hip hop music, and identified rap centers. Cartographic analysis was based on the hometowns of 1124 rappers and the release dates of their debut albums from 1979 to 2015. The diffusion of rap followed the hierarchical diffusion pattern by leapfrogging from one major urban area to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on experiences with interdisciplinary work during the dissertation process. It deals with the problem of combining the logic and basic assumptions of qualitative social research with film theoretical perspectives with the aim of constructing a framework for the analysis of music videos. It also highlights difficulties in making good on the demands of qualitative research (particularly, the necessity to “bracket" different types of knowledge in the process of interpretation) in practice: If the research subject (here: hip hop culture) has high personal or biographical relevance for the researcher, problems occur in relation to the requirements of controlling internalized interpretive frames and impartiality. The substantive focus of the dissertation is presented along with a new approach to a promising concept of interdisciplinarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music can communicate a great deal about the culture and society that it comes from. This is the case with the contemporary Swedish rock band Kent, who are not only the most popular band in recent Swedish music history, but also perceived as quintessentially Swedish. Of particular importance to understand this Swedishness is the band’s origin in the city of Eskilstuna, which communicates three interrelated ideas about Sweden: Eskilstuna as an archetypical Swedish small city; the band’s humble beginnings in Eskilstuna illustrates a “class journey” that resonates in Sweden; and Kent’s migration to Stockholm has resulted in an ambivalent relationship with their hometown. The path of Kent’s career has further reinforced the notion of Kent as a Swedish band, particularly as they failed outside the Nordic countries and how their concert choices and collective public persona create associations with Swedishness. Finally, the content of Kent’s music and lyrics are rich with spatial and environmental metaphors that can be conceptualized as four different landscapes representing Sweden: an inner landscape, a public landscape, an urban landscape, and a winter landscape.

Music, in addition to propagating culture, stands out as a strong promoter of identity and reveals the soul of its locations. In geography, the location is the appropriate tool for studying those prints or marks that express themselves in space. These are also perceived via songs, given that the location allows us to understand what happens in the space in which we live beyond natural or human conditions. The method used was hermeneutics phenomenology, in that a great part of the theoretical framework is associated with authors and topics that have some kind of affinity with said method. Therefore, this work has as its objective to carry out a reading of musical letters that interpret the Goiás state as a location. It is about a good option for whoever desires to get to know Goiás from another perspective or in a different way from that which other territories and sites are read. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socioloski Pregled is the property of Srpsko Sociolosko Drustvo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of bilig: Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkish World is the property of bilig: Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkish World and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Music can communicate a great deal about the culture and society that it comes from. This is the case with the contemporary Swedish rock band Kent, who are not only the most popular band in recent Swedish music history, but also perceived as quintessentially Swedish. Of particular importance to understand this Swedishness is the band’s origin in the city of Eskilstuna, which communicates three interrelated ideas about Sweden: Eskilstuna as an archetypical Swedish small city; the band’s humble beginnings in Eskilstuna illustrates a “class journey” that resonates in Sweden; and Kent’s migration to Stockholm has resulted in an ambivalent relationship with their hometown. The path of Kent’s career has further reinforced the notion of Kent as a Swedish band, particularly as they failed outside the Nordic countries and how their concert choices and collective public persona create associations with Swedishness. Finally, the content of Kent’s music and lyrics are rich with spatial and environmental metaphors that can be conceptualized as four different landscapes representing Sweden: an inner landscape, a public landscape, an urban landscape, and a winter landscape.

Popular music can be used to study many subjects and issues related to the social sciences. 'Geographies of American Popular Music' was a workshop that not only examined the history and development of select genres of American music, it also introduced students to basic geographic concepts such as the culture hearth and spatial diffusion. Through a series of films, recordings, and readings, country, bluegrass, blues, rock-and-roll, jazz, and hip-hop were geographically studied, dissected, and discussed. Finally, a discography of American popular music was compiled by each student, which attempted to determine how America should be musically represented as a place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After more than three decades of isolation from the West and a paralyzing economic crisis in the early 1990s, Cuba is increasingly globally active in both cultural and economic realms. In this paper I use Bourdieu’s (The fields of cultural production, 1993) fields of cultural production as a general frame through with to inspect the commercialization of Cuban music. Through a case study with Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, the creator of the Buena Vista Social Club, I explore the dialectical relationship of music as an expression of cultural and a cultural asset, and at the same time a commodity for the international market. I show that de Marcos uses his position between the international music industry and the local music scene in order to preserve cultural authenticity and survive economically. In doing so he challenges the all-to-typical place of the artist in the contested space of cultural production between the West and the Third World. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic music is a strong indicator of cultural identity. Central and Eastern European ethnic groups have historically been associated with folk music traditions, such as polka, and radio broadcasting patterns in the United States reflect continued demand for and support of this music. Data from the 2000 Census was used to generate maps of the county-level ancestral patterns from European regions traditionally associated with polka music and was compared with the locations of radio stations that play polka. This article demonstrates straightforward quantitative approaches to evaluating these patterns of musical preferences. This study serves as an example for ways in which mapping and GIS can be used as tools for teaching and learning topics related to cultural geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]