Gigographies
where popular musicians play
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i2.196Keywords:
mapping, Moretti, music performance, performance studies, scenesAbstract
Using an approach pioneered by the literary scholar Franco Moretti, this article maps popular music performance sites in order to understand the links between performers and their audiences and between music and its geographical, social, economic and cultural environments. Three case studies are provided. The first compares three genre-scenes in the Manchester region in the 1960s—dance bands, beat music and folk clubs. The second case study examines the itineraries of four national tours of Great Britain in 2008. The final example is the international touring career of Elton John between 1970 and 2006.
References
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Moore, C. 2000. One Voice—My Life in Song. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Moretti, F. 1998. Atlas of the European Novel 1800–1900. London: Verso.
—2005. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models of Literary History. London: Verso.
Moss, P. 1994. Manchester’s Music Makers. Manchester: Neil Richardson.
—1996. Manchester’s Dancing Years. Manchester: Neil Richardson.
Rosenthal, E. 2001. His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John. New York: Billboard Books.
Shank, B. 1994. Dissonant Identities: The Rock’n’Roll Scene in Austin, Texas. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press.
Straw, W. 1991. ‘Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular Music’. Cultural Studies 5, no. 3: 368–88. doi:10.1080/09502389100490311
Williams, R. 1981. Culture. London: Fontana.
Breithaupt, D., and J. Breithaupt. 1996. Precious and Few: Pop Music in the Early 70s. New York: St Martin’s Griffin.
Cohen, S. 1991. Rock Music in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
—1999. ‘Scenes’. In Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture, ed. B. Horner and T. Swiss, 239–50. Oxford: Blackwell.
—2007. Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Connell, J., and C. Gibson. 2003. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203448397
Finnegan, R. 2007. The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town. New England: Wesleyan University Press.
Fonarow, W. 1995. ‘The Spatial Organisation of the Indie Music Gig’. In The Subcultures Reader, ed. K. Gelder and S. Thornton, 360–9. London and New York: Routledge.
Gracyk, T. 2001. I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music and the Politics of Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Hickling, A. 2009. ‘Tracks of Her Tears’. The Guardian, film and music section, 10 July: 10.
Laing, D. 2007. ‘Nine Lives in the Music Business: Reg Dwight and Elton John in the 1960s’. Popular Music History 2, no. 3: 237-61.
Lawson, Alan. 1992. It Happened in Manchester: The True Story of Manchester’s Music 1958– 1965. Bury: Multimedia.
Lechner, M. 2009. ‘Nouvel état des lieux de Pierre Henry’. Liberation, 25 July: 24.
Leyshon, A., D. Matless and G. Revill, eds. 1998. The Place of Music. New York and London: Guilford Press.
MacKinnon, N. 1993. The British Folk Scene: Musical Performance and Social Identity. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Moore, C. 2000. One Voice—My Life in Song. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
Moretti, F. 1998. Atlas of the European Novel 1800–1900. London: Verso.
—2005. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models of Literary History. London: Verso.
Moss, P. 1994. Manchester’s Music Makers. Manchester: Neil Richardson.
—1996. Manchester’s Dancing Years. Manchester: Neil Richardson.
Rosenthal, E. 2001. His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John. New York: Billboard Books.
Shank, B. 1994. Dissonant Identities: The Rock’n’Roll Scene in Austin, Texas. Hanover and London: Wesleyan University Press.
Straw, W. 1991. ‘Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change: Communities and Scenes in Popular Music’. Cultural Studies 5, no. 3: 368–88. doi:10.1080/09502389100490311
Williams, R. 1981. Culture. London: Fontana.
Published
2010-11-16
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Laing, D. (2010). Gigographies: where popular musicians play. Popular Music History, 4(2), 196-219. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i2.196
