Music, Cities, and Cultural and Creative Industries Policy

Abstract

The current interest of policy makers in contemporary popular music should be seen as connected to the growing worldwide interest in development of the creative industries and creative cities. In contrast to the move away from the inner cities that characterised the post-WWII ‘Fordist’ era of capitalism, and its separation of the city into zones of urban production and suburban consumption, the period since the 1980s has seen a growing worldwide interest in the development of cities as sites for creativity and consumption. While this has been driven in part by urban regeneration projects, termed gentrification or ‘yuppification’ by their critics, it has also reflected a growing realisation that, in a creative economy, the wealth of a city or region resides not only in its physical and human capital, but also in the less tangible networks of knowledge capital and social capital that lead to the clustering of creativity and innovation in particular geographical locations. A central element of the cultural ‘competitive advantage’ of cities and regions in a global creative or knowledge-based economy is the significance, diversity and vibrancy of activities in the night-time economy. The night-time economy is a term that is used to describe the diverse range of service-related and creative industries associated with leisure, entertainment, hospitality and tourism, which cater to the ‘liminal zone’ between work and home for the local population, and activities related to travel and tourism for those visiting a city. This paper explores such claims in relation to the popular music industry in Brisbane, and considers the implications of such developments for cultural policy more broadly.