sehepunkte 25 (2025), Nr. 1

Sarah Baker / Zelmarie Cantillon / Raphaël Nowak: Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Justice and the Deindustrialising City

In the midst of a growing literature addressing both the nexus of music and deindustrialization, as well as the forgotten or absented histories of ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities, this book makes a targeted and honest attempt to bridge the gap between the two streams. It is primarily concerned with the question of cultural justice, a concept which the authors elucidate and debate extensively. They emphasise the need to acknowledge and address the power-derived ideological and structural realities that inform a subject even as seemingly democratic as popular music studies. While their point is well taken, their claim that there is a widespread belief among scholars that "culture is 'good' and produces 'good effects'" (4) seems uninformed, given the large historiography on empire and cultural imperialism, as well as the extensive work done on culture and power within the frame of cultural studies. Regardless of their focus on the contemporary world, the notion that cultural justice is a uniquely new attempt to grapple with the uneven nature of narratives in popular music, is short-sighted.

They approach the question of cultural justice in popular music through three case studies: Detroit in the United States of America, Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and Wollongong in Australia. Spanning three continents (but remaining within the anglophone world), there is potential for interesting comparatives, though the limited length of the book does not really allow for these to surface to great effect. In terms of elucidating the question of cultural justice, the extent to which this is addressed and analysed varies significantly between the case studies, with the example of Detroit being the most analytically and thematically in sync with the objective of their study. Though treated as if on par, the three case studies are not really equatable - whether methodogically, sociologically, or musically - and in absence of some form of common thread outside of a link to deindustrialising spaces, the connections between them not adequately elaborated. In the case of Wollongong, which, as it transpires late in the text, is a case of forgotten heritage, the authors' insistence on giving it the same treatment as the other two cases detracts from its potential as a point of comparative contrast to the other studies, which are musical archives that are still alive and thriving. This is not to take away from the importance of preserving heritage that is important to different communities, but to emphasise the need for adequate and analytical context in giving each case the unique place and significance of which it is deserving.

In their detailed discussion of the exhibition on the heavy metal band Black Sabbath in Birmingham, their critical analysis overlooks important nuances in the multidirectional links between community, music, and deindustrialisation. As some scholars have argued, the connection between heavy metal and deindustrialisation could be characterised more as a feature of the locale of habitation and inspiration for and integration into the music, rather a causal one leading to the genre's birth or creation. The genre draws largely from previous traditions of blues particularly, and African-American musical forms generally, something which the authors, despite their drive for cultural justice, neglect to mention. Their focus is on acknowledging the multiethnic communities that comprised the working-class labour force in British factories, a fact that is indeed important to recognise in deindustrialisation histories; however, the manner in which they attempt to integrate the musical element linked to these multicultural communities becomes problematic, particularly when equated to Black Sabbath.

As former factory workers, Black Sabbath's literal workspace formed not just a part of the life experiences of the members of the band (much like their worker counterparts from other communities), but also informed the manner in which the instrumentality and lyricism of the music developed at a time when heavy metal was still a nascent genre. Qawwali is a far older form of music, and both qawwali and bhangra have links to certain religious and ethnic traditions, with a well-established identity already in place prior to their reproduction in Birmingham, potentially as a means of identity-retention or formation for these communities. If there was musical innovation in these genres in connection with the factory of the kind that came to be in the music of Black Sabbath, the authors do not say. And if this was not the case, then the connection between genre, community, and deindustrialisation cannot be drawn in the same manner between (Birmingham's) heavy metal and the other genres of music listed in the name of cultural justice. Rather than listing these genres in the desire to be inclusive, their histories and links to deindustrialisation should have been appropriately addressed, otherwise the point is rendered moot.

In fact, for a book that is so concerned with the promotion of cultural justice as an approach to research, it does very little in this direction itself. Except for the case study of Detroit, where the racial and ethnic aspects of the class divide, and their rather more frequent scholarly study, allow for these elements to actually come to the fore, the other two cases make mention only of cultural justice by noting its absence. Moving beyond recognition to study and analysis, even in a condensed way, would have been a more effective means of pulling these case studies from what is already known, towards beginning the process of saying what there is yet left to say.

The book is crafted more as a policy paper than an academic text, with a toolkit at the end providing suggested guidance for other scholars who may wish to take a cultural justice approach to their studies and/or communities. Historiography must always grapple with the traces that are left behind, for that is all that is afforded to the present as a representation of any past. Parts of these traces are intentional, others are circumstantial, structural, contrived, or simply intangible. The act of archiving memory in the way in which has been done in Birmingham, Detroit, and Wollongong as highlighted by this book is therefore important for the work that future historians will do, and what materials will rest for them to draw upon when attempting to understand the times that have been left behind. The authors come to their subject therefore from the commendable position of wanting to bring cultural justice and representation to communities that may have been unjustly absented from these histories of deindustrialisation. If the book misses certain elements of nuance, it stands steadfast in its goal to push for a change in perspective and the way we think about narratives in popular music and deindustrialisation studies.