Through the prism of popular music, this article examines how the preservation and display of this global cultural form positions itself at the nexus of the local and the global, and in so doing mediates attachment to place. Springing from the increasing cultural legitimacy of popular music and the growing participation of fans and local communities in heritage practices, Dutch private and public heritage initiatives are analyzed to explore how the local histories and lived experiences of popular music reverberate in the framework of wider global cultural developments. The results of this study indicate that museums and archives give places meaning through three interrelated processes. They present local sociocultural histories, foster a sense of belonging and cultural pride, and seek to document the artistic legacy of places. Furthermore, it is found that despite the strong transnational dimension of popular music, the studied heritage practices strongly resonate with local and national cultural identities, as narratives of popular music and heritage are mediated by locally situated cultural gatekeepers. These findings are based on in-depth interviews conducted with archivists, collectors and curators from the Netherlands.

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doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2015.05.001, hdl.handle.net/1765/78213
ERMeCC - Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture
Poetics : Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts
Department of Media and Communication

van der Hoeven, A., & Brandellero, A. (2015). Places of popular music heritage: the local framing of a global cultural form in Dutch museums and archives. Poetics : Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, the Media and the Arts, 51, 37–53. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2015.05.001