We were delighted to write a guest post about Mapping Popular Music in Dublin for our friends over at The Blackpool Sentinel, a wonderful blog that hosts “infrequent conversation(s) between fans of music, some of it long-lost.” Here’s a short excerpt from Aine Mangaoang’s piece:
“To ask for a map is to say ‘tell me a story’” (Turchi, 2004:11).
Once known as the city of a thousand bands, Dublin’s reputation as a city of popular music-making is largely considered as one that consistently, even if somewhat unknowingly, “punches above its weight”. Yet within the realm of academia, literature on Dublin’s vibrant and internationally popular music scenes are surprisingly scarce. The few academic studies that do mention Dublin’s popular music culture either focus solely on rock music, or speak of Dublin as part of a national, or nation-wide, “Irish popular music” aesthetic without teasing out the particular (and perhaps peculiar) Dublin features. Indeed, Dublin’s exciting, extensive popular music culture and heritage and their potential to enhance tourist and civic experience have received relatively little attention until quite recently. Policymakers at government and agency levels currently operate within an information vacuum, and as such there is a significant need for empirical, evidence-based research on popular music in Dublin, particularly if we are to support current industry needs and potentials.
You can check out the full-length post here. Many thanks to Martin and all at The Blackpool Sentinel for extending the invitation.