British citys musical style2000 Sheffield is a large city located in South Yorkshire, England with a population of more than 540, 000. It is Britain™s fourth largest city. Being in the center of Britains railway and highway network, traffic is very convenient.
As a city of famous education and multiple cultures, Sheffield™s biggest industry used to be the steel industry but gradually shifts towards a cultural renaissance (Tweedale, 1995). Like many other cities in Britain, Sheffield has a long tradition of the manufacturing industry that nurtured the working class who entertain by the form on music and avant-garde performance. As a city with abundant classical music heritage, Sheffield shares common trends but also differs from other UK cities in certain aspects. Its most prominent strategy is to combine tourism with music heritage and bring the music industry into the next level. This article will provide comparison in terms of historical background, economy and major industry, cultural focus and development strategies, and identity of the city between Sheffield and other cities in the UK, such as London, Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham.
The comparison mainly lists the most substantial features and policies of the cities to highlight Sheffield™s unique status as the center of popular music. Historical background (of other cities) London is not only the capital of Britain, but also the largest city in Europe. Its financial industry is ranked top along with New York as two biggest financial centers. With over 2000 years of history as an international city, London has abundant museums, musical scenes, famous sights and art galleries, and its function as the political center with royal families makes it extra special and attractive. Manchester has the largest cultural sector in terms of employment outside of London (Brown, OConnor, & Cohen, 2000). Located in With an abundant and unique musical history, Manchester™s rock and pop bands have achieved international success that has contributed to the thriving of local musical businesses (Brown, OConnor, & Cohen, 2000). Liverpool is a city on the north west of England and its historical status is a major port for trade. It has one of the largest economies in the UK dominated by service sector industries.
Other than the famous football team, Liverpool also has the well-known band Beatles™ as one of its greatest attractions. Meanwhile, it also has many galleries and museums for arts and literature. Birmingham is a second largest city in central Britain. It is one of the centers for manufacturing with thriving automobile industry, heavy industry and financial industry. It also has much contribution to the music industry in terms of heavy metal, reggae, jazz and classical music. Economy and Major Industry Like other cities, Sheffield went through de-industrialization during the 80s. While most regeneration plans seek for places that thrive in the mainstream economy, studies show that there were alternative models of regeneration, based upon forms that could be pursued in depressed, de-industrialized areas (Hudson, 2006). Many other cities draw competition by attracting new investment opportunities and forming business integration, but Sheffield recognizes that establishing a key industry around music falls along with its development schemes.
Its development of the Cultural Industry Quarter (CIQ) as a reaction of the declination of steel industry and prosperity of local music bands prompted the City Council to think of cultural industry as a new growing sector (Brown, OConnor, & Cohen, 2000). Buildings were renovated into studios and rehearsal facilities for adapting the music industry, following with the opening of the National Centre for Popular Music (NCPM) as a visitor attraction (Brown, OConnor, & Cohen, 2000). Although the project of NCPM ended sooner than expected and later turned into a building for students, many argues that it™s not simply a failure™, but more like a project with short life that inspired many small successes during its process (Kam, 2007). The fact that Sheffield has this council-supported music industry is crucial because it not only promotes the city™s economy, but also helps build up its image. As the first city in the world to provide an interactive scene of music industry when it built the NCPM (Kam, 2007), Sheffield™s concept on the music industry is a creative and inspiring example, not to mention that such operational experience could be borrowed by other cities in creating its own attraction in a certain industry.
In only 20 years, Sheffield has transformed from a city with deserted factories to an attraction for cultural and musical industry (Frith, 2000). In comparison with Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham are quite familiar in terms of de-industrialization and culture regeneration. Although these cities™ main industries have already shifted or gradually shifting to the service industry, they emphasize on different aspects. For example, Manchester has a solid music culture of rock bands but it follows the Darwin mode™ and allows it to grow without interference (Brown, OConnor, & Cohen, 2000). Liverpool was a major port and its industry is still heavily related to trade. Birmingham still takes up a large portion of industrial zones (DiGaetano & Lawless, 1999) in Britain with 25% of exports from Britain made there.
London is the most obvious example that has a very different pattern than Sheffield. As the capital of Britain, London not only functions as the culture center of the country, but also the financial and political center. Therefore Sheffield definitely focuses more on its culture and music industry than other cities do. Cultural Focus and Development Strategies In the search for new sources of economic growth and employment, one of the priority investment areas are identified as the arts, culture and media industries (Hudson, 2006).
Developing music industry is a strategy for many of the British cities, such as Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham, and especially in Sheffield. When fans go visit these cities, they will associate the experience with the musicians from there and participate in a variety of music scenes™ with great satisfaction (Long, 2014). In the current economic landscape of globalization, the right cultural strategy is crucial for a city™s social development. In Sheffield™s case, it has a marketing campaign called Creative Sheffield™ which developed programs focusing on music and cultural legacy, focusing on local artists, music festival venues, and music scenes (Long, 2014). This could help attract more tourists who share the same value in terms of music and culture.
Meanwhile, it also helps on transforming the music industry which is being crushed by internet digitalization. Manchester, which is also a city known for pop music and bands, has a slightly different approach and cultural pattern. The Manchester City Council also tried to promote the city as a centre for music and culture as part of its economic regeneration strategy, which at first focused on building a well-established area for cultural business, then shifting to the music-based developments (Hudson, 2006). However, the leadership of the government is very different in conducting such culture strategy. Compared with Sheffield™s City Council™s proactive guidance, Manchester has been more prepared to allow market forces to shape the way (Hudson, 2006)™. As we can see, the approach of Sheffield is more top-down™ while many businesses in Manchester want less interference from the government. London™s main cultural strategy lies in the combination of landscape, history, and being the only capital of Britain.
As a city full of resources, London™s music industry also blooms, but more in a standard way of production. The biggest international record companies are in London and they take up a large portion of the industry and conduct global marketing, promotion and distribution (Watson, 2008). A study finds that high degrees of integration into the global music industry are the major advantages of Londons music industry (Watson, 2008). Therefore London™s music industry is more likely to be described as directly related to profit from sales, and many artists come to London only on purpose for better opportunities in album recording. When it comes to marketing, artists are usually labeled by where they were inspired, and that place is not London, but somewhere else.
This makes London more like a music factory™ than the muse for creativity. In Birmingham and Liverpool, classical music takes up quite a portion of the music industry. For example, the Liverpool symphony orchestra was a geographical, cultural and social focus for the whole city, also part of the community (Smith, 1993)™, and the development of classical music provides a culture renaissance for Birmingham.
Although the legacy of music has been constantly evolving over hundreds of years in Birmingham (Smith, 1993), in the current context, fewer and fewer audiences out of the next generation are willing to commit to classical music. The city of Birmingham supports its orchestra by building better educational academies and introduces partnership with enterprises to revive the classical music industry. The iconic architecture, Symphony Hall, has been probably the most important single contributory factor in Birminghams cultural renaissance (Smith, 1993)™. Thus this strategy has successfully combined the city™s legacy with ongoing renovation for its culture rebirth.
Identity of the City A city is always remembered for something more than just its physical form, such as music, or architecture, of which we call identity (Till, 2006). It is claimed that popular songs ¦ reflect a particular geographic experience at a certain point in time, whereby both the producer and consumer of the songs engage with the landscape in ways that are reflected in the music and in our memory (Keeling, 2011)™. Sheffield™s identity is shaped by popular music as it spread from Britain to all around the world. Even if you haven™t been to Sheffield at all, you can still relate to the city through lyrics from those phenomenal musicians and bands: Martin Simpson, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, The Full Monty, Arctic Monkeys, Pulp, and etc.
What is also worth mentioned is that many famous band members were educated in Sheffield™s two universities, and they choose music as a career because of the common identity and shared value in Sheffield. To identify such concept, surveys were conducted among a certain groups of musicians who had recorded and performed in different British cities. According to one of the famous Sheffield producer who has worked with many well-known artists, Sheffield is a city without distractions from public and media attention, whereas in other major cities he has experienced such problem (Long, 2014).
The interviewee also praised Sheffield for having affordable and accessible music facilities for recording and rehearsal purposes compared with London, and the local government supports these facilities as we have discussed in the beginning of this article. Other interviewees claim that the music industry in Sheffield has nice resources and networks, which are surrounded with a cool, non-surveillance atmosphere (Long, 2014). From the interviews, we can see that Sheffield is indeed a music city™ recognized not only by fans but also by musicians and producers as compared with other cities in Britain.
Manchester is also well-known for its music, but much angrier in a Madchester™ way (Till, 2006) or as interviewee says, full of hubris™ (Long, 2014). Geographically, Sheffield is more user-friendly and economic than London, the multi-functional capital of Britain. Sheffield™s diversity in popular music also adds to its attraction when compared with Liverpool, a city which is always under the shadow of the Beatles (Long, 2014). Conclusion Cities are not just built of stones, but of stories, sounds and other stuff (Till, 2006). Although Britain has many cities with music heritage and cultural background, they still differ in many ways.
As the center of different types of popular music, such as rock, metal, folk, hip-hop, R&B, Jazz, and many others, Sheffield is able to coordinate its strategy and policy with the development on culture industry which leads local economy to bloom. Unlike Sheffield, other cities have their own way of development considering their historical background, main industry and business strategies. Some also promotes music industry but with much less interference, others focus more on other industries due to their economic structure. Sheffield also has a strong identity of popular musicians and bands that attracts tourism. Therefore, Sheffield™s uniqueness as a music city™ really stands out among cities in Britain.();,?()()?[-Z]
