Unauthorising popular music heritage: outline of a critical framework

Sonic Artefacts: "Record Collecting" in the Digital Age

“…There are some parallels between the activities discussed in this article and the broader practices of community-led archivism that have previously been examined in relation to place-placed cultural heritage projects (for example, Bennett 2009;Cohen et al 2014). Roberts and Cohen (2014) suggest a tripartite definition of heritage discourse: officially authorised, self-authorised and unauthorised.…”

“…In doing so, it may be argued that these bloggers are acting as informal cultural historians or archaeologists engaged in uncovering, discussing and contextualizing the music and artists concerned. They may also foster or support specific musical subcultures or taste communities and come to resemble a version of the Internetbased "silo cultures" identified by Condry (2006), where information about an artist or genre is obsessively collected on a single website (see also Cohen et al 2014). Furthermore, online interactions between bloggers and their visitors, or between different bloggers who share similar music interests, might constitute a loose version of what Rheingold (2000) has called "virtual community".…”

“…Baker and Huber (2013) refer to self-authorised heritage projects such as museums, archives and halls of fame as "DIY institutions", and these may be contrasted with online community archives, such as fan shrines and social media sites focused on particular artists, genres or scenes, which seek no authorisation and may not even conceive of themselves as archives (Baker and Collins, 2015: 986-987). In Roberts and Cohen's (2014) definition, these online community archives would be described as unauthorised heritage, and the two fan practices discussed in this paper would also fit into this category since validation is received primarily from other music fans, and for the most part they operate outside official music industry frameworks and copyright legislation.…”

“…Roberts and Cohen (2014) suggest a tripartite definition of heritage discourse: officially authorised, self-authorised and unauthorised. Each of these three types is ascribed with value and legitimacy through a variety of processes and practices.…”

Alternative Radio: exhibiting radio and music heritage after the Christchurch earthquakes

“…For objects of musical culture this kind of 'heritage' framing is often at odds with music's status as 'popular' or 'commercial' culture (Brandallero and Janssen 2013, 225). However, being put together by independent practitioners from archives kept by the community organisation, and its community members, the exhibition reflected a democratisation of memory and meaning-making in museum practice (Black 2011;Baker & Huber 2013;Brandellero & Janssen 2013;Roberts & Cohen 2013).…”