Sound Tracks 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.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. Sound
Tracks charts a dual process of embodiment and mobility in music. It examines
the ways in which music has informed complex globalisations, the role of
companies and technology in diffusion, innovation and commercialisation and the
wider significance of cultural industries. It links migration and mobility to
new musical practices, whether in 'developing' countries or metropolitan
centres, and traces the recent rise of 'music tourism'. It examines issues of
authenticity and credibility, and the quest for roots within different musical
genres, from buskers to brass bands, and from rap to rai. Sound Tracks
emphasises music's contributions to the contradictions, illusions and
celebrations of contemporary life.; It situates music within spatial theories of globalisation and local
change: fixity and fluidity combined. 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.
