URBAN REDEVELOPMENT, LIVE MUSIC AND PUBLIC SPACE

Abstract

This article examines the use and promotion of popular music in inner‐city spaces in Sydney. Inner Sydney is currently undergoing rapid gentrification. Residential developers have played upon the reputation of key suburbs as sites of creativity, lifestyle and “alternative subcultures” focused around main street consumption spaces. Yet, resultant property market rises have threatened the ability of artists, musicians and others employed in the cultural industries to secure affordable housing and spaces for performance. At the same time, Sydney has experienced a decline in live music venues, in part fueled by competing revenue streams for publicans (such as slot machines, trivia nights and karaoke), but also exacerbated by the imposition of more restrictive licensing and regulatory laws. These trends have been the subject of much public debate. In the eyes of many within the “creative” industries, newer gentrifiers have merely exacerbated this trend through excessive noise complaints and changing consumer preferences that have resulted in a slump in demand for live amplified music. One policy mechanism intended to arrest the decline of live venues is discussed in this article. Marrickville City Council, in Sydney’s inner‐west, has recently funded a series of free live music concerts in the open spaces it manages in response to a Live Music Task Force established to examine musical performance opportunities in the area. The concerts are deliberately intended as a response to criticisms over the lack of live spaces, but are also part of a wider commitment to celebrate and promote cultural vitality and diversity within the municipality. These policy moves are discussed in this article with regard to the politics of regulating live music spaces, and the role of local government in mediating the cultural impacts of gentrification and urban redevelopment.

Keywords:

• urban redevelopment
• gentrification
• live music venues
• local government
• Marrickville
• Sydney

Notes

Unless otherwise stated, quotations in this section of the article are all derived from interviews conducted with staff in Marrickville Council’s communication and cultural services division during late 2002 and early 2003. Quotations from individual interviewees were not intended to be interpreted as official policy, but rather reflect the perspectives of the individuals concerned. Those interviewed chose to remain anonymous.

Marrickville Council has invested heavily in community facilities, including the arts. It presides over one of Sydney’s only major community precincts, the Addison Road Community Centre, an ex‐armed services barracks facility, which now houses the Sidetracks Theatre, Reverse Garbage and The Bower recycling initiatives, community gardens and theheadquarters of several local ethnic community representative organisations, among other uses.