This volume examines the global influence and impact of DIY cultural practice as this informs the production, performance and consumption of underground music in different parts of the world. The book brings together a series of original studies of DIY musical activities in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Oceania. The chapters combine insights from established academic writers with the work of younger scholars, some of whom are directly engaged in contemporary underground music scenes.
The book begins by revisiting and re-evaluating key themes and issues that have been used in studying the cultural meaning of alternative and underground music scenes, notably aspects of space, place and identity and the political economy of DIY cultural practice. The book then explores how the DIY cultural practices that characterize alternative and underground music scenes have been impacted and influenced by technological change, notably the emergence of digital media. Finally, in acknowledging the over 40-year history of DIY cultural practice in punk and post-punk contexts, the book considers how DIY cultures have become embedded in cultural memory and the emotional geographies of place.
Through combining high-quality data and fresh conceptual insights in the context of an international body of work spanning the disciplines of popular-music studies, cultural and media studies, and sociology the book offers a series of innovative new directions in the study of DIY cultures and underground/alternative music scenes. This volume will be of particular interest to undergraduate students in the above-mentioned fields of study, as well as an invaluable resource for established academics and researchers working in these and related fields.
Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University. A leading international figure in sociological studies of popular music and youth culture, he has written and edited numerous books, including Popular Music and Youth Culture, Music, Style, and Aging and Music Scenes (co-edited with Richard A. Peterson). He is a faculty fellow of the Yale Centre for Cultural Sociology, an international research fellow of the Finnish Youth Research Network, a founding member of the Consortium for Youth, Generations and Culture, and a founding member of the Regional Music Research Group. He is also the co-founder and co-cordinator of KISMIF Conference. URL: www.kismifconference.com/en/.
Paula Guerra is Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Porto (FLUP), and a Senior Researcher in the Institute of Sociology (IS-UP). She is also Invited Researcher at the Centre for Geography Studies and Territory Planning (CEGOT) and CITCEM – Transdisciplinary Research Centre ‘Culture, Space and Memory’ at the University of Porto (UP), and Adjunct Professor at Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR). Professor Guerra was the Head Researcher of ‘Keep it simple, Make it fast! Prolegomena and Punk scenes – a Road to Portuguese Contemporaneity (1977–2012)’, an international and interdisciplinary project about the Portuguese (and global) punk and underground scenes. She is also the co-founder and co-coordinator of KISMIF Conference. URL: www.kismifconference.com/en/.
