ABSTRACT
I am honoured to contribute some closing remarks to this issue of Cultural Studies devoted to the idea of cultural scenes. I am writing this at the beginning of a six-month leave from teaching and am reminded of my very first sabbatical in 1990-1991. This was the year in which I wrote my first article on the notion of scenes and coedited, with John Shepherd, the issue of this journal in which that article appeared. My article, inspired by rich exchanges with Holly Kruse, Barry Shank and others, has had a longer shelf life than anything else I have written. It has brought me cherished friendships and collegial relationships with scholars in Brazil, France and elsewhere; it has ensured that, even when I felt I had nothing more to say on the subject of popular music, I was still offered a seat at the table with those who study it.
