Music scenes, space and the body

Abstract

The concept of scene has now become a primary conceptual framework in studying the production and consumption of popular music. In his formative essay on scenes, Straw (1991) offered the important observation that, through its ability to transcend community, scene could simultaneously be theorised as a local and trans-local phenomenon. More recently, Peterson and Bennett (2004) have added a new dimension to this conceptualisation of scene through positing virtuality as a further medium for scene involvement. However, missing from each element of this tripartite model of scene - local, trans-local, and virtual -is any consideration of how music scenes are enacted through the process of embodiment. In this paper, we argue that the process of embodiment is critically important for how music scenes are constructed, enacted and maintained by participants. The corporal element of scene introduced through its embodiment by social actors, we argue, is a key element for our understanding of the music scene as an anchoring place within everyday urban, regional and, increasingly, rural landscapes.