Jan 16: Cities and Music: an introduction

There are many cities which have a particular connection with music, and led to the development of a particular 'sound', or had their moment when a whole range of bands emerged from their music scene. 

Some of the UK examples would include Liverpool (of course), Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol etc. The recent Oasis reunion was a reminder of their close connections to a particular city.

From the USA we would have to mention Seattle and Detroit as obvious examples too. Motown and Grunge....

"To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.” 

Marshall Berman

Cultural Landscapes are one aspect of cities which I've explored a lot, thanks to the influence of Simon Oakes, Jo Norcup, Alex Schafran and a whole range of other culturally-inclined geographers.

Also check out the excellent book: 'Hit Factories: a journey through the industrial cities of British pop' by Karl Whitney (which was published in 2019).

I will be revisiting this book this year and hope to work some ideas up into a unit of work on music and cities. This blog is part of that work, as it will gather further ideas from you, the readers and visitors.

I'm hoping to complete a curriculum resource on musical cities and the benefits to the economy, creative industries, soft power and the rest.

Thanks to Jo Norcup for the following link as well which was posted some years ago now, related to the links to music from Birmingham. 

Home of Metal in @guardian.

One hell of a city: how Birmingham embraced its heavy metal legacy https://t.co/c2FGDeqI98

— Home Of Metal (@homeofmetaluk) June 23, 2019

This became much more significant recently with the passing of Ozzy Osbourne and his funeral. Black Sabbath Bridge will certainly have a lot more visitors. Their appearance at the Commonwealth Games and the creation of Ozzy the bull have also added to cementing the legacy of this band within the city and beyond.

Carl Lee mentioned quite a few extra things in his book 'Home' on Sheffield. I shall be coming back to that as well and Carl will be contributing to the blog as the year progresses.

I will also revisit this Guardian piece.

What cities do you think are particularly influential in musical history? 

Not just in the UK (although I'll start with those in the blog...)

If you have any further ideas, fill in the Google Form here, and I'll follow up any interesting suggestions. 

We will come back to this at numerous times over the year ahead and visit these cities - I'll share my personal experiences of many of them over the year ahead too...