What's the Newport Effect? Music Festivals, Touring, and Local Scenes

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Abstract

Live performances are a considerable and growing concern for the music industry, and a newfound importance for cities as they transition from centers of cultural production to entertainment machines. This article begins to examine how U.S. festivals affect the wider music map for touring musicians and disparate music scenes across the country. We analyze the relationship between bands, festivals, and the places they tour by focusing on one event—the Newport Folk Festival—and matching interview data from musicians and music industry professionals with quantitative data that maps the network that results from the connections between musicians and the cities where they perform. In so doing, this article points to a new way of thinking about the cultural geography of music—beyond the expected centers of cultural production (i.e., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville)—a ‘geography of genre.’

Authors

• Jonathan R. Wynn, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

• Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas, University of Massachusetts-Amherst