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work is probably that by the Finnish geog-
rapher J.G. Grano ̈, whose studies of sonic
landscapesin Finland date back to 1929 (see
Grano ̈, 1997 [1929]). However, evidence of
a concerted interest in either music or sound
does not exist until the early 1970s. Studies
influenced by theberkeley schoolofcul-
tural geography examined musical per-
formances, music association memberships,
musical listening and musicians’ birthplaces
alongside a variety of other cultural artefacts.
The purpose was to identify cultural hearths
and tracediffusionsacross space and through
hierarchies, mapping out culture areas,
regionsandlandscapes. This traditional ap-
proach to the geography of music is exemp-
lified in Carney (2003). Early studies focused
substantially on rural folk cultures and re-
gional styles in the USA. More recently, the
focus has switched to consider how popular
musical genres such as those based in
Nashville, Seattle or Liverpool evolve within
a givenplace(Carney, 2003, pp. 1–2).
Geographical studies of music have prolifer-
ated since the mid-1990s. Developing themes
and methods from thecultural turn, studies
have examined issues concerned withsense
of place, belonging,gender, style andiden-
tity, the politics of landscape representation,
and national and transnational identities
(Leyshon, Matless and Revill, 1998; Brunn
and Waterman, 2006). One theoretical start-
ing point was the concept of ‘soundscapes’
adopted by S.J. Smith (1994b) to bring out
the inherently spatial aspects of auditory en-
vironments. However, many of these studies
drew substantially from theoretical develop-
ments in related disciplines. Fromsociology,
for instance, these include the functioning of
institutions and organizations in the produc-
tion and consumption of music and the role of
sound in the fabric ofeveryday life; from
cultural studies/anthropology, the place of
music in politics of culturalhybridity,subal-
terngroups and alternate lifestyles; and from
critical musicology, the social production of
musical experience and critiques of conven-tional conceptions of popular and elite, worthy
and worthless musics. The rise to prominence
ofcultureindustries as a vehicle for econo-
mic regeneration has provided further impe-
tus, resulting in studies centred on the merits
of cultural policy, cultural quarters, cultural
tourism, creative capital and festivals, as well
as local and regional place marketing. The con-
text of new digital and networked communi-
cations media has produced studies grounded
innew economic geographyprimarily con-
cerned with media synergies and with global,
regional and local networks of production and
marketing (Connell and Gibson, 2002).
Recent work often critiques the new cultural
geography’s apparent preoccupation withtext
andrepresentation. Although music can be
considered a material artwork like painting or
literature, the ephemeral qualities of sound
make music a distinctivelyperformativecul-
tural medium. As geographers have engaged
withartforms beyond their conventional con-
cern for the visual, so the performative aspects
of music and dance have become an increasing
focus of study. Investigations ofaffectand
emotional geographyhaveresultedinstud-
ies centred on listening practices, performing
and making music, rhythm, embodiment and
the dancingbody. Much of this work explores
both the subjective experience of music and its
physical presence as it is embodied in objects
such as instruments, recordings and sheet
music; their associated organizations and
infrastructures, venues, recording companies
and radio stations; and the practices of
performing and listening. Concerns for the
co-construction ofnatureand the materiality
of cultural life now produce studies that
explore the multi-sensory richness of environ-
mental experience whilst remaining sensitive
to both thephenomenologyandcultural
politicsof sound (Anderson, Morton and
Revill, 2005). Such studies connectenviron-
mental historyandecologywith a critical
interrogation of regional and local cultures, in
ways that acknowledge the pioneering work of
Grano’s early sonic geographies.Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_M Final Proof page 485 1.4.2009 3:19pmMUSIC