Sounds of Our Town: The Detroit Edition

Sarah Baker, Zelmarie Cantillon, Bob Buttigieg

Research output: Creative WorksTextual Works

Abstract

This zine arises out of a project run by three researchers - Sarah, Raph and Zel - from Australia. We've been asking the questions: Why should we preserve popular music heritage? What can the music made in a city tell us about its people and histories? What role might a city's popular music past have in strengthening its creative and heritage futures? Back in 2018, we received a small grant from Griffith to support research into popular music heritage initiatives in places that have experienced industrial decline. We started out with a focus on Wollongong, a deindustrialising city in Australia which had made various efforts to document and celebrate its rich music history. One of the key insights we took away from our visits to Wollongong was the importance of passionate, committed individuals in the community who were taking a grassroots, do-it-yourself, do-it-together approach to telling stories about popular music's past. We also wanted to know what was happening with popular music heritage in deindustrialising cities overseas. In 2019, after receiving a more substantial pot of funding from Griffith, we expanded the scope of our research to include Detroit, USA and Birmingham, UK. Like Wollongong, Birmingham and Detroit drew our interest because they're deindustrialising cities with rich music histories and heritage initiatives that serve to reflect on those histories. We were interested in what parallels could be drawn between these places, but also what aspects made them unique. In April 2019, Zel travelled to Detroit to connect with and learn from Carleton Gholz, founder of the Detroit Sound Conservancy (DSC), a non-profit organisation devoted to preserving the city's music heritage. While in Detroit, Zel spoke to several key people interested in popular music's history and engaged with a range of interesting heritage initiatives, including the Motown Museum, Exhibit 3000 techno museum, DSC's Salvaging Sound exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum, and a music heritage tour with Carleton. The research highlighted a vibrant cluster of popular music heritage activities in Detroit. This fieldwork also showed that despite the city's dramatic industrial decline and urban decay, it is now in a process of regeneration - a contested process with both significant benefits and drawbacks. We wanted our research outcomes to reach a wide audience, not just be confined to scholarly books and journals. Taking a cultural justice approach, we set out to participate in various public engagement activities. In Wollongong, we held a public event at a local art gallery which brought together music heritage practitioners from Australia, Norway, the UK and the USA. Detroit was represented on the panel by Carleton, who shared with the people of Wollongong insights into his - and the Detroit Sound Conservancy's - ongoing work to remember and foster pride in the music history of the city.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationParramatta, N.S.W.
PublisherSounds of Our Town
Size45 pages
Publication statusPublished - 2020

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