ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on pop culture with respect to some themes. It looks at ways in which the cultural status and identity of the 'North' and the regions has been altered because of the emergence of 'regional' music, club and other pop cultural industry infrastructures. The chapter examines 'local' pop cultural scenes, which include bands and clubs, fashion and graphic designers, promoters and people working in the technical sphere of live and recorded music. It argues that it is through popular culture, and in particular pop culture, rather than high culture, that cities such as Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester have become established as credible sites for the production and consumption of culture. The chapter looks at the way in which there was an aestheticization of 'Northernness' which was again important in terms of establishing regional pop scenes in redefining urban identities.
