‘It’s A Social Thing, Not a Nature Thing’: Popular Music Practices in Reykjavík, Iceland

Abstract

Over the last three decades, Iceland’s reputation has been increasingly tied to the prominence of its popular music. Associated with an effervescent independent scene and the global successes of the band Sigur Rós and the singer Björk, the country has been positioned as one of the world’s most vibrant cultural hotspots. With particular reference to Reykjavík, the paper aims to show how the city’s spatial configuration favours the development of dense creative networks and attendant forms of knowledge, conflict, diversity and collaboration. It assesses the integrative nature of music education on the island, the formation of a small but influential punk scene and the global marketing of the country’s music through an agile cluster of cultural agencies and intermediaries. Getting a sense of the city’s routine musical practices, it will be argued, opens an aperture on the location of place-based musics within prevailing social and economic conditions.

‘Hipster Capitalism’ in the Age of Austerity? Polanyi Meets Bourdieu’s New Petite Bourgeoisie

“…There is a particular focus on understanding the 21st-century hipster through studies of identity, consumption and authenticity (Hill, 2015;Maly and Varis, 2015;Michael, 2015). Here Prior (2015) remarks that the hipster is a nebulous media term suggesting being 'on trend' and 'in the know' of the latest lifestyles. In a similar vein, Schiermer's (2014) analysis of hipster subculture draws on Simmelian sociology to argue that hipsters are finely attuned to their role in recreating culture and taste.…”

The screams all sound the same: The music of Of Monsters and Men and the Icelandic imaginary as geographical discourse

“…As Prior (, p. 84) notes, the “romantic exaltation” of natural beauty in the context of Iceland is tied to the assumptions that its music “could not have come from anywhere else but the rousing wastes and wilds of its landscape” and that a relational affinity exists between the natural environment and autochthonous creativity. Beyond Iceland, this perceived relationship between a very particular and novel musical aesthetic and a unique landscape has become central to the development of a globalised “Icelandic imaginary.” The commercial success of artists such as Björk is intimately tied to this imaginary, both in terms of how the music is perceived and interpreted by audiences, and, as we shall emphasise later, the power of this imaginary as a resource for marketing.…”

“…However, as Prior (, p. 82) notes, “to reduce the complexity of musical worlds to the immanent or generative qualities of nature is simplistic at best, and damaging at worst.” Therefore, we argue that both the band's music and their commercial success must also be considered in the wider context of local and global music industries and markets. As noted previously, playing in more or less explicit or conscious ways on Icelandic identity can contribute positively to commercial success.…”

“…Second, and more significantly, their success must also be set in the context of a growing Icelandic popular music scene and music industry, and the global marketing of Icelandic music through an “increasingly agile cluster of cultural agencies and intermediaries” (Prior, , p. 83) that have emerged in the capital, Reykjavík. These agencies have been central to the cultural and economic circulation of Icelandic music in broader markets.…”

“…Thus, in particular genres at particular times, certain locations have become highly marketable commodities. Indeed, Prior (, p. 94) notes how “scenes themselves and their myths are a circulating idea or commodity” in which distinctive cultural goods are a resource deployed by nations in “the battle for attention” and in the establishment of a cultural economy. In this paper, we examine this in relation to the development of an “Icelandic imaginary” centred on particular notions and perceptions of Icelandic landscape and folklore.…”