Local Identity and Independent Music Scenes, Online and Off

Abstract

Independent music scenes were prominent in the last two decades of the 20th century, but today indie music can be disseminated online, and internet tools allow people in distant locations to engage with each other easily online. With the popularity of the internet, some local spaces devoted to music are becoming less popular and less viable. Yet local spaces continue to provide the infrastructure for music scenes. On the basis of archival research and interviews with scene participants, this paper argues that the decentralization and globalization of music production and dissemination have not resulted in the disappearance of local identities, local scene histories, or the perception that there are local sounds.