Sound Tracks Popular Music Identity and Place

"Soundtracks" traces the relationships between music, space and identity-from inner city 'scenes' to the music of nations-to give a wide-ranging perspective on popular music. It examines the influence of cultures, economics, politics and technology on the changing structure and geographies of music at local and global levels. Taking music from its role as an expression of local culture in indigenous societies to its gradual evolution towards a global music industry, this work pays particular attention to the complex spread of world music from reggae to zouk and beyond. Containing an impressive and comprehensive range of global case studies "Soundtracks" takes an innovative approach to the complex and changing relationships between music and space to provide a genuine global assessment of the power and pleasure of popular music in its many forms.

Sound Tracks is the first comprehensive book on the new geography of popular music, examining the complex links between places, music and cultural identities. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective on local, national and global scenes, from the 'Mersey' and 'Icelandic' sounds to 'world music', and explores the diverse meanings of music in a range of regional contexts.In a world of intensified globalisation, links between space, music and identity are increasingly tenuous, yet places give credibility to music, not least in the 'country', and music is commonly linked to place, as a stake to originality, a claim to tradition and as a marketing device. This book develops new perspectives on these relationships and how they are situated within cultural and geographical thought.

Chapter 01 Into the Music; Chapter 02 Music and Place; Chapter 03 Music and Movement; Chapter 04 The Place of Lyrics; Chapter 05 Sounds and Scenes; Chapter 06 Music Communities; Chapter 07 New Worlds; Chapter 08 A World of Flows; Chapter 09 Aural Architecture; Chapter 10 Marketing Place; Chapter 11 Terra Digitalia?; Chapter 12 The Long and Winding Road…;

John Connell is Professor and Head of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney and Chris Gibson is Lecturer in Economic Geography at the University of New South Wales