ABSTRACT
Among the many forms of popular music heritage preservation practice evident in today’s cultural landscape, what could be referred to as DIY (‘do-it-yourself’) preservation is a particularly interesting phenomenon. Generally flying under the radar of the more official forms of popular music heritage-making seen, for example, in museums and other forms of state- and public-sponsored exhibitions and related activities, or in the increasingly prevalent popular music heritage media, DIY preservation is typically within the purview of dedicated amateurs whose passionate resolve is to preserve or excavate and (re)introduce forgotten artists and their music to a wider public. This chapter focuses on the theme of DIY preservationists and their contributions to the sphere of contemporary popular music heritage and culture. The chapter begins by conceptualising what is meant by the term DIY popular music preservation before proceeding to focus on two specific examples of this phenomenon: the Canterbury Sound and Voiceprint Records.
