Life in a northern (Australian) town: Darwin's mercurial music scene

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Tess Lea, Francesca Baas-Becking and Karen Hughes for their participation in the wider research project from which this article stems, as well as all the people who have given their time to be interviewed for the study. The study was funded by the Australian Research Council (LP0667445) and included financial and in-kind contributions from Tourism NT, the Northern Territory Government Department of Natural Resources, the Environment and the Arts (NRETA) and Darwin City Council.

Notes

1. The notion of ‘periphery’ is certainly present in research on music; for example, research in regions considered ‘peripheral’ within national contexts, such as Wales (e.g. Hill 2007). In ethnomusicology, studies of music in remote, obscure locations are familiar partly because of that discipline's commitment to documenting cultural diversity, but also because of its historical links to anthropology (e.g. Robinson et al. 1991; Feld 1982; see related debates on the absorption of ‘exotic’ styles into ‘world music’ distribution and marketing: Lipsitz 1999; Feld 2000; Connell and Gibson 2004). Yet, in most studies of music scenes (meaning here the wider social, economic and technological networks surrounding music, rather than the music itself), the locations are usually urban centres of above a certain size.

2. Happy Yess Community Arts Incorporated was formed by three friends and opened in mid-2006 with a view to providing Darwin with an accessible community-run, not-for-profit live music and arts space in a city not well served by grass roots-level music venues. Operating three nights a week, Happy Yess embraces a range of original performance and arts performance, including music, spoken word, film, art exhibitions and stand-up comedy.