ABSTRACT
Music is bound up in place and in transformations of material spaces; increasingly this occurs through tourism and its promotion. Some tourist destinations have developed because music (or the performers themselves) had some connection with those places, but music is more subtly connected with tourism in other, more diverse ways. Music is a cultural resource bound up in how places are perceived, and how they are promoted. It is one means by which places can be represented in wider mediascapes, shaping local or regional identities; and, by design or default, music influences the images that attract tourists. Few holiday brochures are without some reference to music, whether in bars and clubs, through shows of various kinds, in references to ‘folkloric’ local musical customs and performances, or through the depiction of buskers on street corners. Whether actively, through attendance at events, or visiting ‘heritage’ musical sites, or merely passively, music plays some part in many holidays, as in Bali, where one travel brochure notes ‘Asia’s first Hard Rock Hotel covers a 3-hectare site…418 tribute rooms and suites are situated in 6 blocks named after different musical styles: rock ’n’ roll, blues, reggae, psychedelic, alternative and rock’. Music, like other elements of culture, from literature to sport, has increasingly stimulated new tourist niches, which have become critical sources of income in several places.
