Contemporary Music Tourism : A Theory of Musical Topophilia

This book explores the growing phenomenon of music tourism – instances of people visiting places because of a connection with music. Asking how an abstract art form such as music can lead to tourism and how the popularity of music tourism in contemporary culture might be explained, it presents a comparative study of music tourism in various locations across Europe, in relation to a range of musical genres. Through the concept of ‘musical topophilia’, the author offers a timely and insightful analysis of the affective attachment to place and music, showing how and why music literally moves people. This account enables us to grasp the complex ways in which music, place, and tourism are connected in practice. Based on empirical case studies, Contemporary Music Tourism lays the foundation for a theoretical grounding of music tourism as a research field and, as such, will appeal to scholars of geography, music, sociology, tourism, and cultural studies.Leonieke Bolderman is Assistant Professor Cultural Geography and Tourism Geography and Planning at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research concerns the role and meaning of music heritage and tourism in urban and regional development, on which she has published in various journals and edited volumes. This book explores the growing phenomenon of music tourism - instances of people visiting places because of a connection with music. Asking how an abstract art form such as music can lead to tourism and how the popularity of music tourism in contemporary culture might be explained, it presents a comparative study of musical tourism in various locations across Europe, in relation to a range of musical genres. Through the concept of 'musical topophilia', the author offers a timely and insightful analysis of the affective attachment to place and music, showing how and why music literally moves people. This account enables us to grasp the complex ways in which music, place, and tourism are connected in practice. Based on empirical case studies, Contemporary Music Tourism lays the foundation for a theoretical grounding of music tourism as a research field and, as such, will appeal to scholars of geography, music, sociology, tourism, and cultural studies. Through comparative empirical research, this book explores various types of music tourism in different locations across Europe and in relation to several genres of music, in order to develop a theoretical account of the complex ways in which music, place and tourism are connected in practice.