Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity: Localised Popular Music Histories and Significance for Music Audiences and Music Industries in Europe

This project examined the strengthening role and significance of popular music in shaping cultural identity and heritage at local and national level.

The project took a comparative approach by focusing on localities in different countries to build as complete a picture as possible of popular music’s contribution to cultural memory across Europe.

POPID examined its contribution to the narratives of cultural identity and representations of cultural memories. It also explored how these expressions are represented and negotiated in the practices and products of the music industry and the heritage sector. POPID had two key aims. It sought to assess:

• the role played by local popular music as a cultural form consumed via mass media in influencing cultural identity at a local, national, and European level
• how the European music industry can generate ongoing connections to local popular music heritage in a way that continues to be meaningful for local audiences

The Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University led the project, with partners from the University of Liverpool, the University of Ljubljana and the University of Vienna.