Popular Music Heritage Places, Objects, Images and Texts

This book critically discusses the significance of popular music heritage as a means of remembering and re-presenting rock and pop artists, their music and their place in the culture of contemporary society. Since the mid-1990s, the contribution of popular music to the shaping of contemporary history and heritage has increasingly been acknowledged. In the same period, exhibitions of popular music related artefacts have become more commonplace in museums, and facilities dedicated to the celebration of popular music history and heritage, such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, have opened their doors. Popular music heritage has found other mediums of expression too. There is now a significant popular music heritage media, including books, magazines, films and television series. Fans collect and display their own mementos, while the live performances of tribute bands and classic albums fulfill an increasing desire for the live spectacle of popular music heritage. This book will be crucial reading for established scholars as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students studying popular music heritage.

1. Introduction: Why popular music ‘heritage’ – and why now?.- 2. Music, heritage and the cultural consecration of place.- 3. Museums, music halls of fame and fan conventions.- 4. Memorabilia, collectibles and enshrinement.- 5. Heritage media and ‘classic’ re-presentation.- 6. Heritage discourse and the internet.- 7. Tribute bands, self tribute and ‘Classic Albums Live’.

Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University, Australia. He has written and edited numerous books including Music, Style and Aging (2013), Music Scenes (co-edited with Richard A. Petersen, 2004) and Popular Music and Youth Culture (2000).