Popular Music in Geographical Analyses

• Main Author: Kong, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1995
• Subjects: cultural geography; geographical analysis; music role; popular music; theoretical studies; Geography; Music
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1740; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/2997/viewcontent/PopMusicGeographicalAnalyses_1995.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography (see, for example, Cosgrove and Jackson, 1987; Jackson, 1989; Cosgrove, 1989; 1990; Anderson and Gale, 1992; Bames and Duncan, 1992). In this article I will focus on the interface between geography and popular music, focusing specifically on the contributions of such exploration towards cultural and social understanding. In what follows, I will first discuss the reasons for geographers’ relative neglect of popular music and why this disregard should not persist. Secondly, I will provide a brief review of trends in existing geographical research on popular music. Finally, I will explore how existing lines of inquiry might be expanded, using retheorized perspectives in cultural geographical scholarship as springboards for discussion. Particularly in this final section, the divisions between geographers and nongeographers should not be overemphasized at the expense of furthering our understanding of popular music, culture and society. Indeed, I draw heavily on the works of sociologists and cultural theorists for both their theoretical insights and empirical analyses.