Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #591035 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'The book is impressive in scope, covering a broad range of music genres, styles and geographical places and reviewing an extensive body of work... It will become a central text for anyone interested in the study of music, place and space.' - Dr Sara Cohen, The Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool, UK

'Through Sound Tracks, John Connell and Chris Gibson should successfully lay to rest critics who argue that popular music does not warrant serious academic attention The book is wide-ranging, well-researched, and written with clarity.  I would highly recommend it to students and researchers alike.' - Dr Lily Kong, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

From the Back Cover
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.

About the Author
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