What Makes a Music Scene?

Introduction 

What does Athens Georgia in the early 1980’s bring to mind? What about Seattle in the early 1990’s? Does San Francisco in the late 1960’s conjure an image? All of these places and times had a burgeoning music scene. Athens produced REM and The B-52s, Seattle produced Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Nirvana. And many iconic bands came out of San Francisco – The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin.  What defines a music scene? An academic definition would be ‘a geographically delimited market in a microcosm rooted in locations . . . musicians tend to concentrate in geographical centers, which are referred to as scenes’ (Florida & Jackson, 2010). A more vivid description comes from David Byrne, leader of the Talking Heads, who refers to a scene as a “special moment when a creative flowering seems to issue forth from a social nexus – a clump of galleries, a neighborhood, or a bar that doubles as a music club” (Byrne, 2012). So why do certain cities become musical hotspots that are known for developing new music and supporting musical innovation? And can we view this through the lens of geography? 

This paper explores the geography of music, starting with the paradox that exists within music and geography, then viewing this through the geographic themes of place, space, and environment. For space, this paper examines both physical networks, as well as spatial characteristics of innovative scenes. For place, this paper looks at the role of industrial hubs vs. innovative scenes; the importance of musical and cultural authenticity, the socio-economic role of music preferences, and the cultural relationship between consumers and touring circuits. For environment, this paper examines the importance of social networks, physical spaces, and media. Lastly, this paper will examine gaps in the research, and opportunities for future research.

The Paradox of Music and Geography

By the very nature of being a national artist, a musician is not bound to a single place. National bands, especially in their developing phase, will play different venues in different cities each night. Being “on the road” for 200 to 300 days out of a year is not uncommon. As such, an artist on the road is not dependent on any particular city for any given night. If transportation or music equipment breaks down, or if a band needs food, laundry facilities, those are found at their current location (King, 2000). And yet, artists are “from” somewhere, and that informs their music. In that sense, they are bound to a place. Home is still home, even when an artist is touring. 

In addition, both musicians and the music industry tend to cluster spatially (Florida and Jackson, 2010). New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles have areas of concentrated industry resources, such as recording studios, artist managers, lawyers, record labels, and so forth. For the upcoming sections, we will need to keep these paradoxes in mind. 

How Does Geographic Space Impact Music Scenes?

This section will discuss both physical networks (transportation routes and proximity), spatial characteristics that are found in innovative scenes, and spatial characteristics of industry hubs.

Musicians travel to different cities for promotion purposes, such as live performances, in-store appearances, or other interactions with fans, and so road networks are critical. Important touring circuits exist in the rust belt areas due to quick travel times between cities. For example, Figure 1 shows a common touring circuit that allows musicians to travel to four major cities with less than a 2 hour drive time between cities.

Figure 1 shows a common rust belt touring circuit between Louisville, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Indianpolis. These medium-sized markets are all within an easy two hour drive of each other (Source: Google Maps)

In general, travelling in the eastern half of the United States is considered fairly easy, as most major cities are less than a days drive (King, 2000). On the other hand, travel within the western United States is far more arduous due to the longer distances of drives between cities. Small towns that are located on interstate highways between two major cities are conducive to the development of a music scene. Besides the convenience of location, these smaller towns often have lower costs for advertising, production, food, and hotels. Columbia, Missouri and Denton, Texas are both examples of music scenes located between metropolitan areas: Columbia, Missouri is situated conveniently on Interstate 70 in between St. Louis and Kansas City, and Denton, Texas is located between Oklahoma City and Dallas (King, 2000; Johansson and Bell, 2014). 

Communication networks also play a strong role in music geography. Music promotion often takes place through the internet. Most fans first hear about a band through the internet, and artists frequently communicate with fans directly through the internet through mediums such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (Holt, 2010). Internet ticketing came into existence in the late 1990’s, and is now the dominant medium by which concert tickets are sold, especially for national acts (Soegoto and Marica, 2018; Budnick and Baron, 2012). Fast internet connectivity is important for growing a fan base of music consumers.

Within industry hubs, the business and creative entities cluster in a geographically dense area, such as New York City’s Tin Pan Alley or Nashville’s Music Row. Nashville’s Music Row houses all the major record labels, plus hundreds of smaller labels, large numbers of studios, publishers, songwriters, agents, and producers (Florida and Jackson, 2010). 

Music Scenes and the Sense of Place

The role of place in music scenes occurs in four areas: first, the role of music industry hubs vs. innovative scenes; second, the role of authenticity that is derived from the place itself; third, the socio-economic characteristics of the population; and fourth, the cultural relationships between consumers and touring circuits.

Innovation occurs outside the hubs, fostered by the relative isolation of smaller towns, then move to the hub for the purposes of monetization. Major industrial hubs are located in large metropolitan areas. The three primary hubs in the United States are New York City, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Smaller industry hubs exist in other locations such as New Orleans, Chicago, Austin, and San Francisco (Florida et al, 2010). These areas have a high concentration of resources that network at a national level. Examples include concert promoters, agents, managers, recording studios, record producers, studio musicians, publishers, music lawyers, and music accountants. However, these major cities have not historically been generators of musical innovation; rather, they amplify music that may have emerged elsewhere. It should be noted that there are some exceptions, such as New York City in the 1970’s. However, these local scenes existed outside of the industry hubs, often flourishing in seedier low-rent parts of town (Byrne, 2012). Instead, innovation historically occurs in small cities and towns away from the hubs. The mass migration of rural folk-based musicians from the southern United States to the north in the early- and mid- 20th century gave rise to new scenes and genres such as Memphis (blues, soul, rockabilly, and rock & roll), Detroit (Motown, soul and rock), Chicago (blues), and Nashville (country) (Florida and Jackson, 2010). A key reason smaller cities are able to be innovative is that the relative isolation allows artists to develop their unique and innovative style away from the homogenization imposed by the profit-driven industry hubs (Connell and Gibson, 2003).

Place helps to brand the music, giving a sense of authenticity by affirming the legitimacy and cultural value of the artist, designer, or musician who created it (Currid, 2007).  Authenticity has both positive and negative impacts. On one hand, authenticity allows 

Nashville amplified music that emanated in the “Southern Mountain” and “Backwood Folk Song Family”, while New Orleans, Memphis, Detroit, and Chicago amplified music from the “Black Folk Song Family” (Connell and Gibson, 2003). Authenticity can have a positive impact on an artist, as well as a negative impact. Blues artists from Mississippi or Chicago might be considered authentic, while a blues artist from Hong Kong may not be. Or a techno artist from Berlin may be considered to be authentic, while one from Paducah, Kentucky may struggle with the perception of authenticity. The socio-economic background of an artist also impacts the perception of an artist’s authenticity. Bruce Springsteen’s songs speak about working class issues, and his blue collar background adds authenticity to the audience’s perception of Springsteen as an artist.

Socio-economic forces also play a role in the development and existence of a music scene. Socio-economic factors impact the audience’s preferences, and second, can provide fertile ground for the clustering of musicians. Geographic variation in audience music preferences reflect and reinforce political and economic divides by class and geography (Mellander et al, 2018). Mellander’s study classified music into five different categories – Mellow, Unpretentious, Sophisticated, Intense, and Contemporary, and then compared this to musical tastes , and aggregated this by metropolitan area. The results showed that similar to how higher income and better educated people in high density living spaces tend to skew more liberal and open-minded, and lower income, less educated, and less dense living spaces tend to be more conservative, so too are musical preferences. Specifically, they found that music labeled “sophisticated” and “contemporary” were found in more liberal, diverse, and denser places, while music labeled “unpretentious” and “intense” tended to be found in lower income, less diverse, more Caucasian, and less educated places. They found that one other type of music, “mellow”, tended to be associated more with race and ethnicity instead of class or economics. Nonetheless, race and ethnicity also tend to be clustered spatially. Economic forces also impact the location of musicians spatially. One important characteristic of emerging music scenes is that “Rent must be low – and it must stay low . . ” (Byrne, 2012). Smaller CBSAs (US Census Core-Based Statistical Areas) tend to have clusters of musicians, as it gives musicians access to larger markets while taking on lower business and living costs within the smaller markets (Florida and Jackson, 2010). Florida and Jackson cites the high location quotient for musicians in the Galesburg, Illinois area, which is in close proximity to the larger markets of Peoria, Illinois; Davenport, Iowa; and Moline, Illinois (Florida and Jackson, 2010). Similarly, the St. Louis music scene in the 1990’s was populated with musicians who lived in Belleville, Illinois; Maplewood, Missouri; and Granite City, Illinois (King, 2000). 

Scenes are often located near college campuses, and many examples of college towns with scenes abound: Athens, Georgia; Omaha, Nebraska; Austin, Texas; Denton, Texas; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Lawrence, Kansas; Columbia, Missouri (King, 2000; Johansson and Bell, 2014). One characteristic of these college towns is that they house large universities with residential housing (dorms), and most students travel more than 75 miles to get to the college. Most college students are between ages of 18 and 26, and will live in these towns for no more than 4 to 5 years before moving to a different location. Another characteristic is that these towns are located between two or more metropolitan areas. Because of that, many artists can easily route through the college towns in between stops at major cities. In addition, because of the transitory nature of the population, college towns become an effective tool for propagating the music beyond the town itself (King, 2000; Johansson and Bell, 2014). 

College audiences generally tend to be sophisticated consumers, and the existence of sophisticated consumers plays a key role in the development of the music scenes (Florida and Jackson, 2010). Touring circuits represent and reflect different musical tastes and preferences over space, and the popularity of places on a touring circuit often acts as a proxy for the cultural sophistication of the scene (Johansson and Bell, 2014). Most medium and large national artists will hit large metropolitan areas as part of their tour, but a hierarchy has developed for the smaller markets. When routing between major metropolitan areas, smaller cities that have audiences that are “cool” or “culturally sophisticated” will tend to see more touring bands compared to smaller cities that don’t have a sophisticated audience (Johansson and Bell, 2014). For example, when routing a tour from St. Louis to Chicago, a frequent router in the state of Illinois is the town of Champaign, as opposed to similarly sized towns of Decatur or Springfield. 

The Environmental Factors that Fertilize Music Scenes

Music scenes can be thought of as geographic locations that bring together social networks, physical space, and media networks (Florida and Jackson, 2010; Caves, 2003). The interaction between these elements creates the environment that allows for music scenes to flourish. Key components of the social network in a music scene include listeners (music fans, critics, tastemakers), and role players (booking agents, managers, and concert promoters). Physical space consists of venues, recording studios, and community outlets such as record stores and college campuses. Local media networks consist of social media influencers, newspapers, radio, and other mass communication systems.

Social networks in music scenes depend on the existence of a culturally sophisticated and supportive audience.  Musical tastes are originally created by musicians and then received by the consumers and critics, who in turn shape the music by adding social and cultural context that is reflected back to the musicians (DiMaggio, 1987). Scenes develop in locations that frequently host touring bands, and touring bands are more likely to play at locations with a culturally sophisticated and receptive audience.  (Johansson and Bell, 2014; King, 2000). The decision of which cities to play on a tour falls to role players (booking agents and concert promoters). Often this interaction requires sharing of trust, which often arises from face-to-face interaction, which is helped by spatial proximity Johansson and Bell, 2014). King describes the interaction between listeners and role players as: “A benchmark of a club that can anchor a scene is listener credibility. You have to trust that a band you have never heard of is worth hearing simply because they have been booked into the club. [The venue booking agent’s] taste created this kind of confidence . . .” (King, 2000). 

The environment of physical places plays a critical role in the establishment of a scene. Physical spaces fall into the areas of venues, community outlets (such as music stores and other places to consume music), and recording studios. Four environmental factors are found in venues in emerging scenes: capacity; competition between venues; the scheduling of artists on any given night; and the ability for the artist to play songs of their own as opposed to current popular songs. 

Venues that are critical to emerging scenes typically need to be small enough to feel full when there are few people, yet have the capacity to hold larger audiences (Byrne, 2012; King, 2000). A primary reason is that touring bands may need to route through a city on a weekday night, when audience sizes are small. Often this is during the early stages of a band. Once bands have established an audience, then they will more likely play on a weekend night, where the crowds tend to be larger. As such, a venue must be able to feel good with only 50 people, but be able to hold up to 300 (Byrne, 2012; King, 2000). Having two competing clubs in an area is conducive to a music scene, but having too many clubs in an area splits the audience, making for smaller audiences at each venue (King, 2000). The scheduling of artists on any given night is also critical to the success of a scene. When touring bands first come to an area, they are not well known to music audiences in the area. In order to help touring artists build a following in a scene, it is crucial for the club booker to pair the artist with a local band that has a known group of followers on the same night: “You have to count on a club bookie who not only likes your band, but who understands it, and who takes the time to pair you with a local band whose audience should appreciate you” (King, 2000).  Byrne brings up the importance of original music being allowed at a venue as being crucial to the development of a scene: “There were very few outlets then for bands and musicians . . . who weren’t willing to cover other people’s songs . . . when Hilly and a few others took the tentative step of letting bands play their own material for small groups of friends and beer drinkers, it was therefore a big deal . . . the fact that there came into existence a forum within which anyone with a band and some songs could broadcast their insights, fury, and lunacy did not just get the water flowing, it actually helped bring the water into existence” (Byrne, 2012).

Recording studios, especially prior to the existence of home studios, played a critical role in fostering music scenes. These recording studios flourished because they exposed musicians and producers to environments where recording techniques and ideas could be exchanged, and cross-pollination between artists, producers, and engineers allowed for the development of new ideas and sounds. Historical examples included Stax Studio and Sun Studio in Memphis, Motown Studio in Detroit, Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, and Criteria Studio in Miami (Cogan and Clark, 2003).

Community outlets such as college campuses and record stores also play a critical role in the development of scenes. Many concert promoters begin their careers at colleges, and colleges provide receptive audiences for touring artists. Hence, college towns become frequent locations on a touring circuit (Johansson and Bell, 2014). Record stores also provide a means of communication between audience members and artists: “All these stores . . . have contributed to the St. Louis music scene as hangouts, as sites for local music to be sold and even played live, and as vital connections between the casual and the obsessive listeners” (Pick and Doyle, 2019).

The last environmental element is the local media. Prior to the late 1990’s, the primary method of communication within a music scene evolved around radio and newspapers (Mizerski and Mullet, 1981). Scene development usually took place in markets that had a college or independent station, which exposed new music by emerging artists to new fans. Newspapers also fell under two categories – the daily paper, and the weekly “alternative rag” (King, 2000; Mizerski and Mullet, 1981). These newspapers, especially the weekly magazines, were especially useful in promoting emerging artists. Currently, social media (which include paid advertisements, emails, as well as blog posts by social influencers) play a critical role in music scenes, both in terms of disseminating music from the artists, as well as informing potential concert buyers of upcoming shows (Holt, 2010). Within that, the existence of a fast digital communication network available to fans is critical to the development of a scene so they can receive audio and video content from artists. 

The interaction of these forces is best summed up in a description of the Seattle music scene of the 1990’s, where “Seattle’s emergence as a culture hearth . . . was based on a dynamic music infrastructure consisting of creative local talent, ambitious recording company agents (A&R personnel) seeking new artists, and numerous independent recording companies” (Carney, 1998).

Practical Application

The concepts discussed in this paper have practical implications for music industry professionals - for example for talent scouts at record labels. Talent scouts at record labels look for upcoming artists. Usually these upcoming artists are part of a more interconnected scene. This paper organizes the characteristics of emerging scenes, which may be further developed into a guideline or checklist for exploring scenes and determining viability of the scene and then monitoring artists within these scenes. For example, the spatial patterns discussing proximity could guide talent scouts to locations that have potential and from there to artists with potential. As an example, despite the fact that Manhattan, Kansas is a large college town with a low cost of living, it may be difficult for a music scene to emerge because there are no large metropolitan areas nearby and it is rarely a touring destination. Lawrence, KS, on the other hand, is located a mere 100 miles to the east and benefits from being near Kansas City, and along the interstate highway that connects Kansas City to Oklahoma City and Dallas, Texas, giving it more potential as a music scene for developing artists. Socio-economic factors may be used to further gauge for markets that may be conducive for artists to practice their craft, as well as to find audiences that may be receptive to discovering and cultivating new emerging artists. For example, the likelihood of finding new artists in a gentrified New York City are significantly lower due to the high costs of living; on the other hand, during the 1990’s and early 2000’s (prior to gentrification), the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles flourished as an artist mecca due to the low cost of living, the high population of 18 to 24 year olds, and the existence of two major venues that catered to new artists.

Research Gaps and Opportunities

While there appears to be an abundance of qualitative research, quantitative research in the field of music scenes is much less prevalent. Quantitative research on music scenes has been conducted at the metropolitan level. However, research by this author has found that audiences cluster at much more granular levels. An examination of music scenes by zip codes or census tracts may reveal further detail that may prove useful in understanding the emergence of scenes. Additionally, obtaining this data at a more granular level will better enable researchers to understand the socio-economic links between music scenes and the audience. Johansson and Bell’s study on touring circuits and Mellander’s study on music preferences occurred at the metropolitan level. Another observation is that tracking via mobile devices enables researchers to learn about the travel patterns for individual users. Can studies be done that analyze audience travel area in conjunction within scenes? For example, do music fans travel from one scene to another? Are these travels seasonal, meaning we see more travel during summer and at holidays? Another area for exploration can be the link between digital music listening habits vs. concert attendance behavior at a granular level. Currently, digital streaming services only provide anonymous data at either the metropolitan area level, or at best, at the Internet service provider hub location. Obtaining data that can tie the digital streaming service data together with the concert attendance data can provide additional insights into music scenes and characteristics. 

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