Popular music, mapping, and the characterization of Liverpool
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i2.126Keywords:
culture, regeneration, representation, spaceAbstract
Liverpool is widely recognized for its iconic ‘Three Graces’—a trio of grand buildings that stand along the city’s River Mersey waterfront. In this article we argue that there are a similar kind of iconic ‘three graces’ in Liverpool’s popular music and heritage landscapes: the Cavern Club, Eric’s Club, and Cream. These three venues have taken on broader symbolic meanings as representative of entire musical styles and eras. As such they dominate the histories of the city’s music-making cultures, producing (and reproduced through) a variety of representations, texts and mappings of the city’s musical past. This paper draws from ethnographic materials gathered through a two-year research project to decentre this ‘master page’ or ‘master map’ of the three graces with a series of mappings of Liverpool’s popular music heritage that calls attention to hidden or alternative histories of the city that are less often mapped.
References
Bennett, Andy. 2007. ‘The Forgotten Decade: Rethinking the Popular Music of the 1970s’. Popular Music History 2, no. 1: 5–24. doi:10.1558/pomh.v2i1.5
Brocken, Michael. 2010. Other Voices: Hidden Histories of Liverpool’s Popular Music Scenes, 1930s–1970s. Farnham: Ashgate.
Carls, Kenneth, and James Schmiechen. 1999. The British Markethall: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Cohen, Sara. 1997. ‘More than the Beatles: Popular Music, Tourism and Urban Regeneration’. In Tourists and Tourism: Identifying with People and Places, ed. Simone Abram, Jacqueline Waldren and Donald V. L. Macleod, 71–90. Oxford: Berg.
—2007. Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Cohen, Sara, and Brett D. Lashua. 2010. ‘Pubs in the Precinct: Music Making, Retail Developments and the Characterization of Urban Space’. In The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City, ed. Marion Leonard and Rob Strachan, 65–83. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press.
Coleman, Roy. 2004. ‘Watching the Degenerate: Street Camera Surveillance and Urban Regeneration’. Local Economy 19, no. 3: 199–211. doi:10.1080/0269094042000230559
Connell, John, and Chris Gibson. 2003. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203448397
Cornelius, John. 2001 [1982]. Liverpool 8. Midsomer Norton: John Murray Publishers.
Daniels, Stephen. 2006. ‘Suburban Pastoral: Strawberry Fields Forever and Sixties Memory’. Cultural Geographies 13: 28–54. doi:10.1191/1474474005eu349oa
Dennis, Samuel F. 2006. ‘Prospects for Qualitative GIS at the Intersection of Youth Development and Participatory Urban Planning’. Environment and Planning A, 38: 2039–2054. doi:10.1068/a3861
Du Noyer, Paul. 2007. Liverpool—Wondrous Place from the Cavern to the Capital of Culture. London: Virgin Books.
European Commission. 2010. ‘European Capital of Culture’. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/ our-programmes-and-actions/doc413_en.htm (accessed June 21, 2010).
Forman, Murray. 2004. ‘No Love in the Heart of the City: Hip-hop, Space, and Place’. In That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, ed. Murray Forman and Mark A. Neal, 155–7. New York: Routledge.
Giroux, Henry A. 2005. ‘The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Significance of Cultural Politics’. College Literature 32, no. 1: 1–19. doi:10.1353/lit.2005.0006
Gregory, Ian. 2005. A Place in History: A Guide to Using GIS in Historical Research. 2nd edn. Belfast: Queens University.
Gregory, Ian, and Richard Healey. 2007. ‘Historical GIS: Structuring, Mapping and Analysing Geographies of the Past’. Progress in Human Geography 31, no. 5: 638–53. doi:10.1177/ 0309132507081495
Grunenberg, Cristoph, and Robert Knifton, eds. 2007. Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Harvey, David. 2007. ‘Neoliberalism and the City’. Studies in Social Justice 1, no. 1: 2–13.
Homan, Shane. 2003. The Mayor’s a Square: Live Music and Law and Order in Sydney. Sydney: Local Consumption.
Jones, Paul. 2010. The Sociology of Architecture. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Krims, Adam P. 2007. Music and Urban Geography. New York: Routledge.
Lashua, Brett D. 2010. ‘Oral Histories of the Vanishing Social Clubs of Liverpool 8: Mapping Black Musical Experience in Liverpool through Collaborative Intergenerational Documentary Filmmaking’. Proceedings from the Annual Leisure Studies Association (UK) Conference. Leeds Metropolitan University.
Leonard, Marion, and Rob Strachan, eds. 2010. The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Lincoln, Yvonne S., and Norman K. Denzin. 2003. Turning Points in Qualitative Research: Tying Knots in a Handkerchief. London: Sage.
Liverpool Culture Company. 2009. Liverpool Culture Company Final Report 2003–2008. Liverpool: Liverpool Culture Company/Liverpool City Council.
Loftman, Patrick, and Brendan Nevin. 2003. ‘Prestige Projects, City Centre Restructuring, and Social Exclusion: Taking the Long-term View’. In Urban Futures: Critical Commentaries on Shaping the City, ed. Malcolm Miles and Tim Hall, 76–92. London: Routledge.
MacLeod, Gordon. 2002. ‘From Urban Entrepreneurialism to a “Revanchist City”? On the Spatial Injustices of Glasgow’s Renaissance’. Antipode 34, no. 3: 602–24. doi:10.1111/1467-8330.00256
Massey, Doreen. 2005. For Space. London: Sage.
Neate, Patrick. 2003. Where You’re At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip-hop Planet. London: Penguin Books.
Richardson, Laurel. 1997. Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Silk, Michael L., and David Andrews. 2008. ‘Managing Memphis: Governance and Regulation in Sterile Spaces of Play’. Social Identities 14, no. 3: 395–414. doi:10.1080/135 04630802102820
Turchi, Peter. 2004. Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. San Antonio: Trinity University Press.
Waxer, Lise. 2002. City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Columbia. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Brocken, Michael. 2010. Other Voices: Hidden Histories of Liverpool’s Popular Music Scenes, 1930s–1970s. Farnham: Ashgate.
Carls, Kenneth, and James Schmiechen. 1999. The British Markethall: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Cohen, Sara. 1997. ‘More than the Beatles: Popular Music, Tourism and Urban Regeneration’. In Tourists and Tourism: Identifying with People and Places, ed. Simone Abram, Jacqueline Waldren and Donald V. L. Macleod, 71–90. Oxford: Berg.
—2007. Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Cohen, Sara, and Brett D. Lashua. 2010. ‘Pubs in the Precinct: Music Making, Retail Developments and the Characterization of Urban Space’. In The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City, ed. Marion Leonard and Rob Strachan, 65–83. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press.
Coleman, Roy. 2004. ‘Watching the Degenerate: Street Camera Surveillance and Urban Regeneration’. Local Economy 19, no. 3: 199–211. doi:10.1080/0269094042000230559
Connell, John, and Chris Gibson. 2003. Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place. London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203448397
Cornelius, John. 2001 [1982]. Liverpool 8. Midsomer Norton: John Murray Publishers.
Daniels, Stephen. 2006. ‘Suburban Pastoral: Strawberry Fields Forever and Sixties Memory’. Cultural Geographies 13: 28–54. doi:10.1191/1474474005eu349oa
Dennis, Samuel F. 2006. ‘Prospects for Qualitative GIS at the Intersection of Youth Development and Participatory Urban Planning’. Environment and Planning A, 38: 2039–2054. doi:10.1068/a3861
Du Noyer, Paul. 2007. Liverpool—Wondrous Place from the Cavern to the Capital of Culture. London: Virgin Books.
European Commission. 2010. ‘European Capital of Culture’. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/ our-programmes-and-actions/doc413_en.htm (accessed June 21, 2010).
Forman, Murray. 2004. ‘No Love in the Heart of the City: Hip-hop, Space, and Place’. In That’s the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader, ed. Murray Forman and Mark A. Neal, 155–7. New York: Routledge.
Giroux, Henry A. 2005. ‘The Terror of Neoliberalism: Rethinking the Significance of Cultural Politics’. College Literature 32, no. 1: 1–19. doi:10.1353/lit.2005.0006
Gregory, Ian. 2005. A Place in History: A Guide to Using GIS in Historical Research. 2nd edn. Belfast: Queens University.
Gregory, Ian, and Richard Healey. 2007. ‘Historical GIS: Structuring, Mapping and Analysing Geographies of the Past’. Progress in Human Geography 31, no. 5: 638–53. doi:10.1177/ 0309132507081495
Grunenberg, Cristoph, and Robert Knifton, eds. 2007. Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Harvey, David. 2007. ‘Neoliberalism and the City’. Studies in Social Justice 1, no. 1: 2–13.
Homan, Shane. 2003. The Mayor’s a Square: Live Music and Law and Order in Sydney. Sydney: Local Consumption.
Jones, Paul. 2010. The Sociology of Architecture. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Krims, Adam P. 2007. Music and Urban Geography. New York: Routledge.
Lashua, Brett D. 2010. ‘Oral Histories of the Vanishing Social Clubs of Liverpool 8: Mapping Black Musical Experience in Liverpool through Collaborative Intergenerational Documentary Filmmaking’. Proceedings from the Annual Leisure Studies Association (UK) Conference. Leeds Metropolitan University.
Leonard, Marion, and Rob Strachan, eds. 2010. The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Lincoln, Yvonne S., and Norman K. Denzin. 2003. Turning Points in Qualitative Research: Tying Knots in a Handkerchief. London: Sage.
Liverpool Culture Company. 2009. Liverpool Culture Company Final Report 2003–2008. Liverpool: Liverpool Culture Company/Liverpool City Council.
Loftman, Patrick, and Brendan Nevin. 2003. ‘Prestige Projects, City Centre Restructuring, and Social Exclusion: Taking the Long-term View’. In Urban Futures: Critical Commentaries on Shaping the City, ed. Malcolm Miles and Tim Hall, 76–92. London: Routledge.
MacLeod, Gordon. 2002. ‘From Urban Entrepreneurialism to a “Revanchist City”? On the Spatial Injustices of Glasgow’s Renaissance’. Antipode 34, no. 3: 602–24. doi:10.1111/1467-8330.00256
Massey, Doreen. 2005. For Space. London: Sage.
Neate, Patrick. 2003. Where You’re At: Notes from the Frontline of a Hip-hop Planet. London: Penguin Books.
Richardson, Laurel. 1997. Fields of Play: Constructing an Academic Life. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Rose, Tricia. 1994. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Silk, Michael L., and David Andrews. 2008. ‘Managing Memphis: Governance and Regulation in Sterile Spaces of Play’. Social Identities 14, no. 3: 395–414. doi:10.1080/135 04630802102820
Turchi, Peter. 2004. Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. San Antonio: Trinity University Press.
Waxer, Lise. 2002. City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves, and Popular Culture in Cali, Columbia. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Published
2010-11-16
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Lashua, B., Cohen, S., & Schofield, J. (2010). Popular music, mapping, and the characterization of Liverpool. Popular Music History, 4(2), 126-144. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v4i2.126
