ABSTRACT
Music plays an important role in the geographic construction of identity. Increasingly, researchers note that music is both a fundamental part of how places are made meaningful in everyday life and, simultaneously, a mechanism through which places are made profitable through the packaging, marketing, and selling of culture in the global tourism industry. Yet, because music is an aural and emotional practice/experience, research into the relationships among music, place, and memory challenge traditional qualitative methods typically used by geographers. Drawing on his own research experience in Cuba and Brazil, John Finn explores the use – and limits – of traditional qualitative methods for music research and outlines new methodological possibilities.
