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Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between rock music, collective memory and local identity, by focusing on events connected to Liverpool's status as European Capital of Culture 2008. The first part of the paper describes these events and how memories of local rock music were attached to heritage and local identity and mobilised to validate Liverpool as a capital of culture, whilst in turn the city's Capital of Culture status served to validate particular ways of remembering the local musical past. The second part of the paper considers the broader significance of these events by relating them to three pan-European trends in cultural policy: the development of the cultural and heritage industries; the protection and promotion of local culture and identity; and the fostering of cultural diversity and integration. It highlights the general significance of the popular music past for cultural policy in Europe, but also the politics of popular music memory and how it involves a complex and dynamic process of negotiation that relates to cultural policy in particular ways. The paper concludes by arguing that popular music offers a specific and productive focus for research on cultural policy, heritage and local identity in Europe.
Notes
1. The paper defines rock (and popular music) broadly, using it as a loose umbrella term that incorporates many different styles of rock but is nevertheless commonly positioned in relation to other popular music genres, such as country and hip-hop, as well as traditional and classical art music. It draws on research conducted for two particular projects and the author thanks the AHRC and HERA for supporting those projects as well as her co-researchers, particularly Brett Lashua and Les Roberts. The author would also like to thank Dave Laing and the two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the paper.
2. http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/other/l29005_en.htm [Accessed July 2011].
3. Both album and song were entitled Liverpool 8 (Capitol Records 2008).
4. http://www.liverpool08.com/Images/sound_tcm79-82276_tcm146-122163.pdf [Accessed January 2011].
5. Certain other scenes were not mapped but were referenced in the accompanying text.
6. http://pluginn.bravehost.com/index.html [Accessed January 2011].
7. The Paul McCartney concert at Anfield Stadium was likewise promoted with the title ‘The Liverpool Sound’.
8. This project (Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity) is based on collaboration between Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Universities of Liverpool and Ljubljana and Mediacult, Vienna.
9. Tribute bands perform the music of well-known bands and may also copy how they look and sound.
10. See, e.g. Harvey (Citation2001), Yudice (Citation2003), Corner and Harvey (Citation1991) and Cronin and Hetherington (Citation2008).
11. This continues to be the case despite the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the safeguarding of intangible heritage, a multilateral treaty from which the UK abstained.
12. See, e.g. Robins (Citation1991), Zukin (Citation1995) and Hall and Hubbard (Citation1998).
13. See, e.g. Hewison (Citation1987) and Wright (Citation1985).
14. http://www.roughguides.com/travel/europe/austria.aspx [Accessed July 2011].
15. http://www.eshcc.eur.nl/english/hera_popid/research_localities/slovenia/ [Accessed July 2011].
16. http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/8H93Y_YDsIU/search/elektrini-orgazam [Accessed July 2011]; Maleckar and Mastnak (Citation1985).
17. ‘Bright Lights, Big City’, The Guardian, 29 March 2003.
18. Crossing the Bridge: the sound of Istanbul. 2010 (Soda Pictures Ltd.); Stokes (Citation1992)
19. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article694281.ece [Accessed July 2011].
20. Personal communication, 2011.
21. http://www.england-rocks.co.uk/order_map.php [Accessed January 2011].
22. This was evident in a list of documentaries on English popular music acquired from the British Film Institute in 2011.
23. http://liverpooldays.com/photo/thumbnails.php?album=41 [Accessed January 2011].
24. Archives dedicated to Birmingham’s musical heritage, for example, include: ‘Birmingham Music Heritage 1965–1985’; ‘Home of Metal’; the ‘Birmingham Music Archive’ and an archive on Bhangra entitled ‘Soho Road: to the Punjab’.
25. http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/Papers/Creating_an_Impact_-_web.pdf [Accessed July 2011].
26. See also McIver (Citation2008) and Hetherington (Citation2008) on the erasure of ruin and dereliction from urban regeneration initiatives.