ABSTRACT
This chapter takes as its focus a documentary film, Routes Jukebox (2015), as a ‘record’ of music, place and heritage. Commissioned by the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF), Routes Jukebox explores Liverpool’s musical heritage by (re)connecting the city to its cultural ‘roots and routes’ (Gilroy, 1993), including musical influences from Dublin, New York, Detroit, Nashville, Los Angeles and Kingston, Jamaica. Through these places, the filmmakers trace the arrival of early rock ‘n’ roll, the influence of country music, the significance of soul, and reggae, ska and sound systems in Liverpool. Whilst offering a playlist of significant songs in the city’s past, the film also ‘changes the record’, decentring Liverpool’s musical heritage. By looking out across the Atlantic, rather than an assumed home-grown essentialism, Routes Jukebox explores a few records that form part of the global ‘mix’ that has shaped the city’s popular music heritage.
