The social and cultural values of live music: Sustaining urban live music ecologies

摘要

This paper presents an overview of the social and cultural values attributed to live music ecologies in urban environments. It is grounded in a qualitative content analysis of live music reports and strategies from Australia, the United States, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Scotland and the Netherlands. Contributing to the emerging scholarly literature on urban live music ecologies, this study enhances the understanding of the social and cultural merits of popular music concerts to cities. To date, the ways in which the social and cultural values of urban live music ecologies can be supported has received too little attention, because the emphasis in the public discourse has been on the economic impact of music-making. In our analysis, we found three different dimensions for social value (social capital, public engagement and identity) and three for cultural value (musical creativity, cultural vibrancy and talent development). Furthermore, we discuss how these values can be supported through specific cultural policies and urban planning interventions.