Research took the following
forms; archival investigation; ethnographic research with groups of
musicians involved with rock, pop and hip hop music (including studio
and performance-based research and walking interviews); showing maps to
musicians to prompt discussion and share stories about music sites and
experiences, and asking musicians to draw maps to represent their
music-making in the city.
The everyday routes of musicians were
traced along with real and imagined sites connected to their
music-making, including physical sites connected to music learning,
rehearsal, performance and recording, and sites represented through
music. Researchers were then able to reflect on the spatial, geometric
patterns that emerged from these maps and the questions they provoked
about the relationship between music-making and material urban
environments.
A one-day symposium held at the University of Liverpool in June 2007,
'Music, characterisation and the urban environment' brought together
academics from various disciplines as well as museum staff, heritage
managers and sonic artists.
Access to the University of Liverpool's recording studios allowed Dr
Lashua to use his extensive experience and expertise as a studio
engineer/producer to offer recording sessions to musicians participating
in the project, and to conduct ethnographic research as a participant
in the process of music composition, performance and recording, gaining
an insider's perspective on the music-making process. Project
respondents have in many cases agreed to perform as guest session
players during other participant's recording sessions. All of the
additional instrumentation was tracked by project respondents who
previously had not met one another.
Outputs from the project were part of a major exhibition on Liverpool
popular music entitled 'The Beat Goes On'. The exhibition was launched
at the World Museum Liverpool in July 2008 as part of the city's Capital
of Culture celebrations, and ran until November 2009. It was based on a
collaboration between the Institute of Popular Music and National
Museums Liverpool. 'Mapping the Beat' was a pilot interactive
installation, featuring six digital multi-media maps of Liverpool
musicscapes incorporating images, text and sound files drawn from the
project. The exhibition attracted a broad and diverse audience and a
total of 478,188 visitors. 'The Beat Goes On-Line' is
an on-line resource produced by the Institute of Popular Music to
support the 'The Beat Goes On' exhibition. Research data from the
project was used for various pages throughout the resource and the
resource includes a sub-section on music and mapping directly related to
the project.
On July 13th 2009 a public showcase event was held at Bar Hannah in
Liverpool. The event involved live music performances from musicians who
had participated in the project, and amongst the audience were
representatives from the project partners and delegates from the 15th
biennial conference of the International Association for the study of
Popular Music.
Kof - a Liverpool-based hip hop musician, with Brett Lashua on drums performed at:
- Liverpool Sound City showcase (20 May 2009) at Alma de Cuba.
- HUB festival (23 May 2009), headlining.
- Liverpool University Guild (28 May 2009), opening for Kid British.
- Barfly (18 June 2009), headlining.
- Glastonbury Festival (26 June 2009), BBC Introducing stage
- The Social, London (14 July 2009), BBC Introducing with Huw Stephens showcase.
Music downloads are available from the project website.
Research findings from the project have also been disseminated at
conferences/seminars to scholars specialising in interdisciplinary
studies as well as those specialising in ethnomusicology, geography,
architecture, communication studies, musicology and archaeology.
The approach taken by the project team to maps and mapping (including digital GIS and hand-drawn concept maps) was new to music studies and continues to be influential. Aspects have been used by the AHRC Beyond Text project 'What is Black British Jazz? Routes, Ownership, Performance', and it inspired the AHRC 'City in Film' project. It has also been adopted as a teaching tool by individual researchers.
The musicians involved were able to develop new skills, insights and ways of working through studio and performance-based collaboration, and to make new contacts. The project will continue to influence the ways in which they work.
The project has highlighted the value of music as intangible heritage and the notion of popular and 20th/21st century culture as heritage.
A number of other projects have been undertaken as a direct result of the Popular Musicscapes project. These include; 'Landscapes, memories and cultural practices: a GIS/GPS digital heritage mapping network' (AHRC), and 'Oral histories and the social clubs of the African Diaspora in Liverpool' (Leeds Metropolitan University). Sara Cohen has also become involved as UK Partner-Investigator in two international projects that enable her to build directly upon Liverpool-based research conducted for Popular Musicscapes; 'Popular music heritage, cultural memory and cultural identity: localised popular music histories and their significance for music audiences and music industries in Europe' (HERA JRP), and 'Popular music, cultural memory and national identity' (Australian Research Council).