Sites of sounds: spaces of pop culture in Manchester’s Northern Quarter

This paper focuses on the ‘Northern Quarter’, a part of central Manchester which has experienced mixed fortunes over the last thirty years. Historically a thriving commercial district, it suffered a period of economic, cultural and environmental decline in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, since the mid-1980s small businesses connected with pop and youth culture have been established. Explanations for this pattern of development are explored. In particular, attention is paid to sectoral clustering, the importance of place, grass roots regeneration and the threat of gentrification

What difference does it make? Women’s pop cultural production and consumption in Manchester.

This paper explores the experiences of women in small cultural businesses and is based upon interviews with women working in a range of contexts in Manchester's popular music sector. The research seeks to promote wider consideration of women's roles in cultural production and consumption. We argue that it is necessary that experiences of production and consumption be understood as inter-related processes. Each part of this process is imbued with particular gender characteristics that can serve to reinforce existing patterns and hierarchies. We explore the ways in which female leisure and consumption patterns have been marginalised and how this in turn shapes cultural production. This process influences career choices but it is also reinforced through the integration of consumption into the cultural workplace. Practices often associated with the sector, such as the blurring of work and leisure and 'networking', appear to be understood and operated in significantly different ways by women. As cultural industries such as popular music are predicated upon the colonisation of urban space we explore the use of the city and the particular character of Manchester's music scene. We conclude that, despite the existence of highly contingent and individualised identities, significant gender power relations remain evident. These are particularly clear in discussion of the performative and sexualised aspects of the job

Manchester, Huddersfield: place, culture and urban change.

In this chapter we focus on two case studies from the North of England, Manchester and Huddersfield. Whilst both places share many features in terms of their histories as textile cities (Manchester and its cotton industry, Huddersfield and its wool) there are significant differences between the two places. The most obvious difference is in terms of their size – Manchester is a major city with an international profile, whilst Huddersfield is a town with a more modest profile. Although only 45 miles apart, Manchester is a sprawling conurbation which bleeds into a number of orbital towns, whilst Huddersfield is compact with an easily distinguishable split between the town and the surrounding countryside. In spite of the countless differences between the two places they both share success in terms of culture led urban regeneration. Below we tell the regeneration stories of each place and conclude by considering the key differences and similarities in terms of the factors that have led to this success

Editorial (Special Issue: Fashioning Girlhood across the Media in the Mid–Twentieth Century)

This editorial contextualizes the main themes covered in the articles of this Special Issue ‘Fashioning Girlhood across the Media in the Mid-Twentieth Century’. The themes involve the real and imagined experiences of girlhood, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. The influence of Angela McRobbie on research in girls’ culture runs through many of the articles. McRobbie worked with girls’ magazines and comics to analyse how they might have impacted on girls’ consumption of popular culture. The articles in this issue analyse the significance of cross media promotion in the ways girlhood is experienced and reflected in film, fashion and stardom. The issue contains articles offering new insights about Jackie magazine, representations of the ballet body in girls comics and film, Vogue Italia covers and female Bollywood stars

Gender and Popular Culture, 2nd edition

This fully updated second edition of Gender and Popular Culture examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. It draws on a wide range of cultural forms – including popular music, social media, television and magazines – to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented, used and consumed. Blending primary and secondary research, Milestone and Meyer introduce key theories and concepts in gender studies and popular culture, which are made accessible and interesting through their application to topical examples such as the #MeToo campaign, intensive mothering and social media, discourses about women and binge drinking, and gender and popular music. Included in this revised edition is a new chapter on digital culture, examining the connection between digital platforms and gender identities, relations and activism, as well as a new chapter on cultural work in digital contexts. All chapters have been updated to acknowledge recent changes in gender images and relations as well as media culture. Additionally, there is new material on the Fourth Wave Women's Movement, audiences and prosumers, and the role of social media