I’ve been working on a music geography project. According to several writers on the subject, music is a field that has been largely ignored by geographers. This is odd to me as I believe that music is a great way to understand diffusion of various cultures and construction of place. However, there are a handful of geographers that see promise in the geographical study of music:

“This hegemony of elite culture has, however, been challenged recently, an acknowledgement of the fact that the very ordinariness of popular culture masks their importance as the ‘well-springs of popular consciousness.” (Havey, 1984:7; Kong, 1995)

Kong’s article, entitled “Popular Music in Geographical Analyses,” is unmatched in its arguments for the study of music in geography. It is a valuable resource for those interested in the subject. However, in my opinion, popular culture isn’t masked by its ordinariness. Its ordinariness reflects the value of its geographical study. The ordinariness of popular culture is a result of the ordinariness of its consumers. The consumers of ordinary popular culture–”ordinary” people (in ordinary places)–are often the most valuable vehicles of diffusion. It is the “ordinary” people who make up most of the world population and, logically, are the carriers of culture across space.

It is necessary to point out that media have arguably supplanted people as the biggest vehicles of diffusion of culture as they are less restricted by barriers to diffusion.

Apart from simply being a method of transporting culture, music is important to geography because of its ability to create space. I digress:

“..ways of hearing and ways of smelling, for example, have an ability to structure space differently from vision; yet, they remain largely neglected.” (Valentine, 1993; Kong, 1995)

“In specific terms, music from a specific area can convey images of the place.” (Kong, 1995)

“Whatever you feel from the music is what it feels like to be there.” (Jarvis, 1985:121)

When one hears norteño (colloquially known as Mexican music), they are often reminded of Mexico. This is only partially correct as this style of music (the name even denotes it) hails from the northern states of Mexico. The point is that Valentine (1993), Kong (1995), and Jarvis (1985) were correct in that music has the ability to structure space differently from vision and can convey images and feelings of the place. An avid listener of country music, when asked about Marty Robbins’ El Paso, might tell you that the name conjures of images of gun-fighting, saloons, revenge, tequila and forbidden love (the proverbial “border rose”).

This is one of the powers of music that renders it valuable to geographers. The creation of space creates many issues that are facets of traditional geography. The way a place is portrayed in song (or any media) can have a direct effect on tourism. Perception through song can then have an indirect effect on the area’s economy, population, diversity and may even lead to gentrification, especially of areas at the core of the music scene. Thus, music is often a forerunner to many areas of interest of traditional geographers.

According to Kong (1995), “…music is also the outcome of environmental experience. Musicians write their music as a consequence of their experiences.” “It serves to produce and reproduce social systems.” This is central to what I’m researching. Kong also states, in reference to works that concern the spatial distribution of musical forms, that

“…such works yield little in terms of providing an understanding of such distrubutional patterns, neither do they provide insights into the ‘inner workings’ of culture (Wagner & Mikesell, 1962:5) nor the broader social and political contexts that give rise to the predominance of particular musical styles and activies in particular places.”

This is promising insight as it is a personal interest of mine. I have asked myself “what causes genres and music scenes to form in the places they do?” What is there that makes the scene tick? What are the commonalities and differences between the places? What (if anything) are the local governments doing to aid/hinder the local scene?

So, what are you doing about it?

I started by reading various articles and have sorted through FCC radio station data. I plan on using the results to map out “music genre” regions of Texas. Afterwards I’ll look at various regional characteristics such as the diversity, languages, ethnic origins, religion, income, education level, proximity to college. Perhaps I’ll even visit key places in each region to see the physical characteristics. I will then compare my map of “genre regions” to a map of Texas’ vernacular regions. I’ll also study the physical characteristics of each place (if I can do the travelling) and attempt to correlate the physical to the musical. My main point is to see if there is a correlation between physical and vernacular landscape and music scene.

I will also try to find a correlation between the physical and vernacular landscapes and regional preferences of music (if I can find any). Several music geographers hypothesize a correlation between creativity and areas of high diversity. This is also something I will be looking at. The hypothesis makes sense but it will be interesting to see it visually. Though I’m not sure how to chart creativity. I’ve anyone has an idea, I’m receptive.

-rw