ABSTRACT
Popular music's links to and evocation have been evident for many years. Simon Frith has highlighted popular music's inherently nostalgic properties, a point reinforced by Tia DeNora in her highly instructive work on the propensity of music both to link individuals with their past and to emotionally ground them in the present. The importance of recognizing the contribution of popular music to contemporary notions of cultural heritage has been variously emphasized in relation to a number of issues, including its connectedness to understandings of local and national identity and its relevance for regional and urban regeneration through, for example, the promotion of cultural tourism. A continuing factor underpinning popular music's transition to the status of cultural heritage is the competing discourses and contestations as to what count as authentic music in particular national and local contexts.
