Gigographies: where popular musicians play – Dave Laing (2009)

Author(s): Dave Laing
Publisher:  Popular Music History, Vol. 4, Issue 2, pp. 196-219
Date: August 2009

Using an approach pioneered by the literary scholar Franco Moretti, this article maps popular music performance sites in order to understand the links between performers and their audiences and between music and its geographical, social, economic and cultural environments. Three case studies are provided. The first compares three genre-scenes in the Manchester region in the 1960s—dance bands, beat music and folk clubs. The second case study examines the itineraries of four national tours of Great Britain in 2008. The final example is the international touring career of Elton John between 1970 and 2006.

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