Music Geography

Music geography is a sub-field within both urban geography and cultural geography. Music geography is the study of music production and consumption as a reflection of the landscape and geographical spaces surrounding it. Music geography gained popularity in the academic world in the 1960s and 1970s by cultural geographers. Scholars saw a relationship of music to landscapes and regions, either with the type of music produced from various places or in lyrics that are inspired by these areas. It became evident that individuals associate music with space.

This subfield is important because sound is a vital facilitator of ideas and spreading culture. Through hearing and listening to music, an individual begins to generate memories and images; a powerful source to further investigates geographical backgrounds of groups. There is diversity in music, the music forms and production of it,which are a reflection of the diversity in human societies. It continuously develops over space and time, as would landscapes progress in order to adapt to changes.

Subfields with music geography includes:

Historically, music was purely an oral tradition that was replaced by the introduction of radio broadcasting in the 1920s. The advances in recording technologies have led music to become a significant reflection of culture and geography. John and Alan Lomax described recording instruments as “song catchers” of folk music, along with linkages of the new and old world of Celtic traditions. For example, much of the popularity of country music in Southern and Western regions of the United States is due to its reflection of a certain American cultural region. Folk music was the first genre of music to be research and analyzed by scholars due to its nature of movement across regions in its style.

During the 1980s, a rise in music market studies was a result of the diffusion of music styles through globalization and popular. Much of the production and demand within the music industry has dissolved the separation of certain genres to certain space, and moved towards integrating of all forms in music. This was also a result of the introduction new musical acts by social media sites such as YouTube, MySpace, SoundCloud, Facebook and so on. Music has become a multi-billion dollar industry that was driving our consumerist culture. In addition to this, music began to influence people’s perspective of certain regions (politically and socially), musical interest and the identities of groups. Further research in music geography includes its correlation with: national identity and spatial impacts.

John Connell’s book titled Soundtracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place explores the many ways in which popular music is spatial, linked to particular geographical sites. It is also a description of an individual’s everyday perception and idea of a place, the movements of people, products and cultures across space. Connell argues that music is mobile. Because music has elements of cultural, ethnical and geographical concepts, there is a correspondence to global, technological, cultural and economic shifts, all which influence identity. An example of this can be observed with the cover of the book, an image of a busy neighborhood with a musical band playing in the background. This illustrates migration’s influence in constant transformation of geographical landscapes, often presented with music.

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