URBAN IDENTITIES IN MUSIC GEOGRAPHIES: A CONTINENTAL-SCALE APPROACH

• Main Author: Ioan Sebastian JUCU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca 2018-10-01
• Series: Territorial Identity and Development
• Subjects: music cities; landscape; spatial analysis; music cartographies; continents; regions
• Online Access: http://territorial-identity.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1_Jucu_TID_2_2018.pdf

Cities are important themes in music, and their related urban identities have framed continuously the various contexts of popular music in the recent decades. This article addresses some issues in Music Geographies focusing on how cities and towns appear in popular music and in its related culture. Particularly, the study unveils the presence of the cities and towns in music, decoding the main themes of their identities behind the lyrics and the musical messages. Firstly, the research shows the presence of the cities in music through continental and regional scales mapping, to identify the spatial distribution of cities in popular music. Secondly, their incidence is considered to understand their presence in various songs, with many of them being emblematic songs in the culture of popular music. Thirdly, some case-studies at continental scale are investigated through particular methods to unveil the main issues of urban identities. The research bases on quantitative investigation, GIS, visual methodologies and lyrics analysis. The main findings argue that, at different regional scales of analysis, cities and their urban identities are omnipresent themes in popular music. They are an integral part of contemporary Music Geographies, with relevant spatial and cultural inequalities, thus opening new avenues for further research.