Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles

Sara Cohen is a Senior Lecturer and Director of the Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool, UK.

• Contents: General editor's preface; Introduction; Music and the city: cultural diversity in a global cosmopolis; Music as a city sound: rock culture and the poetics of loss; Music as city heritage: decline and renewal in the Nashville of the North; Music as city business: trial, tribulation and place in a labour of love; Music as a city industry: haemorrhage, debt and the politics of music policy-making; Music and city tourism: respect, betrayal and the haunting of the Beatles; Music as a city quarter: brands, noises and regeneration; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

'This fine collection of essays about popular music in Liverpool is not only one of the best accounts I've read of how music is shaped by place, but also a fascinating and instructive illustration of how a city can be understood through its music.' Simon Frith, University of Edinburgh, UK '...Cohen...effectively focuses on the city’s popular music production by discussing both the creators and the consumers of music during the era...Highly recommended.’ Choice ’Besides being meticulously researched, the strength of Cohen's narrative lies in the stories told about the importance of music and music-making in the lives of professional and amateur musicians... Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles sets the standard for case studies on the interaction between popular music and the city and also leads a charge for similar studies to be undertaken in Birmingham, Manchester and Sheffield.’ NABMSA Newsletter ’This is a book that successfully reveals how a city's cultural history continues to have a contemporaneous impact...’ Perfect Beat ’... the most comprehensive study of popular music in a single metropolis to date and a worthy template for future studies of other music cities.’ Popular Music