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Scene ‘Theory’: History, Usage and Influence

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Popular Music Scenes and Cultural Memory

Part of the book series: Pop Music, Culture and Identity ((PMCI))

Abstract

This chapter contextualizes the concept of a music scene by offering a history of its usage within research. Popular music scholarship has long been invested in examinations of sound and location. Within the research surrounding scenes, Will Straw’s (1991) paper ‘Systems of Articulation, Logics of Change’ has proven mobilizing. It is Straw’s exploration of scene as ‘cultural space’ that is most often cited. Yet within the second half of Straw’s paper is a conceptual turn that generally remains overlooked. This latter section examines scene-enabling processes for circulating geographically between locations. This morphing and transient articulation, it is argued, is distinctly past-tense: it is the province of cultural memory. Forging links between memory studies and music scenes is therefore an essential step forwards.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gold Coast Campus, Griffith Univ, School of Humanities Gold Coast Campus, Brisbane, Australia

    Andy Bennett

  2. Media and Communication, RMIT University Media and Communication, Melbourne, Australia

    Ian Rogers

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  1. Andy Bennett
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  2. Ian Rogers
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Bennett, A., Rogers, I. (2016). Scene ‘Theory’: History, Usage and Influence. In: Popular Music Scenes and Cultural Memory. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40204-2_2

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