Cleveland: “Where rock began to roll”?

Focused on Cleveland, Ohio, this chapter asks how ‘music cities’ make their claims-to-fame. What underscores Cleveland’s assertion as the “birthplace” of rock ‘n’ roll, and since 1995, the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Drawing from archival research, the chapter explores a micro-historical case study of the city’s popular music heritage. Cleveland claims several notable “firsts”, including the “first” rock ‘n’ roll concert—the Moondog Coronation Ball on 21 March 1952. The chapter also recounts the story of local record store, Record Rendezvous, where legend has it that the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll” was invented. Finally, the chapter recounts how these legacies were mobilized and mythologized, especially during the 1980s when Cleveland successfully positioned itself as a “city of origin” and a serious contender in the campaign to become the future site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

On the same wavelength? Hyperdiverse young people at a community radio station

This paper uses a case study of youth-led community radio station, KCC Live, based in Knowsley, neighbouring Liverpool, UK, to explore which styles of voice belong in the soundscape of KCC Live, and how young people in this ‘ordinary’ social space view the ‘other’. I extend the term hyperdiversity to a discussion of how youth voice on the airwaves can involve the prioritisation of certain local cultural representations, and the silencing of others. I am also interested in young people’s perception towards ‘out-groups’ (people from other towns within Liverpool, and Merseyside more broadly). This notion of out-groups considers identity as a system of categorisation, in which boundaries are used to distinguish localities, creating binary distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘others’. This paper finds that engaging hyperdiverse young people in meaningful interactions around a shared interest, in this case community radio, stimulates the development of relationships across categorical differences

‘You are always on our mind’: The Hillsborough tragedy as cultural trauma

Twenty years have passed since the Hillsborough tragedy, which eventually resulted in the deaths of 96 supporters of Liverpool Football Club. This article draws upon the cultural trauma theory developed by Piotr Sztompka to provide a sociological understanding of the localized experience of public grief that has followed the tragic occurrence. The authors analyse the different stages of cultural traumatization, with a particular focus on the conflicting emic and etic representations of the Hillsborough tragedy with regard to opposite constructions of ‘truth’ and the attribution of blame. It is shown that while Hillsborough may be a matter of recollection and regret for the wider, (inter)national, public, the cultural trauma of Hillsborough for the people of ‘Liverpool’ is far from over

‘No cultural policy to speak of': Liverpool 2008

Recent academic work on European Capital of Culture (ECoC) has fallen into two broad categories: either evaluative, based on assessing the effectiveness of hosting ECoC for policy agendas; or critical, questioning the rationale behind ECoC and its impact on the cities that have held the title. However, little attention has been paid to the role ECOC has played in the ‘modernisation’ of urban governance, particularly in the UK. This article seeks to explore ECoC’s role in city governance by examining the specific case of Liverpool, ECoC 2008 and the related local government agencies in the city, particularly Liverpool City Council (LCC). A narrative of the history of cultural policy within LCC, using institutionalist theory, shows that cultural policy has had a difficult evolution within a city that was initially reluctant to devote institutional capacity and resources to cultural matters. Problems in the build up to 2008 reflect the influence of ‘institutions’ in Liverpool’s political culture and history. The influence of these institutions is at the root of the uncertainty surrounding the long‐term viability of cultural policy in the city. As a corollary to the exploration of the role of institutions in Liverpool, a concluding discussion of ECoC’s role in city governance offers prospects for the cultural policy settlement within Liverpool in the post‐ECoC 2008 era, particularly focusing on the role of Liverpool’s cultural sector as a motivator for cultural policy