Part 1 Historic electronic music scenes.- Chapter 1/Introduction Electronic music, policies and space in the contemporary city.- Chapter 2 Düsseldorf: On the Golden Rhine.- Chapter 3 Resisting that Fascist Groove Thang - Sheffield as the epicentre for electronic music (1973-2020).- Chapter 4 Berlin and Manchester compared: An interview with Mark Reeder.- Chapter 5 London’s underground acid techno scene: Resistance and resilience in the global city (1993-2020).- Part 2 Established electronic music scenes.- Chapter 6 Overlooking the scene: Electronic music and Toronto’s music city project (1999-2019).- Chapter 7 Arbutus Records and MUTEK: Two models of experimental electronic music promotion in Montreal.- Chapter 8 Compression aesthetics: Transducing segregation in the Los Angeles Beat Scene.- Chapter 9 Electronic Łódź, Poland: From freedom parade to managed entertainment.- Chapter 10 Budapest, Hungary: Techno scene (1988–2018).- Chapter 11 Helsinki, Finland: Liberalisation, shifting night clusters and gentrification (2010-2020).- Chapter 12 “You’re Not the Boss of Me!” – The relationship between EDM and DIY in Australia.- Part 3 Emerging electronic music scenes.- Chapter 13 Cluj-Napoca, Romania – Electronic Dance Music and local policy (2015-2020).- Chapter 14 On the fence: Electronic Dance Music Cultures in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.- Chapter 15 Embodied listening: Grassroots governance in Electronic Dance Music venues in Accra (Ghana).- Chapter 16 Tehran, Iran: “Experimental” Electronic Scene (2000-2020).- Chapter 17 Conclusion.
Dr. Sébastien Darchen is Senior Lecturer in Planning at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Dr. Damien Charrieras is an Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong.
Dr. John Willsteed toured the world through the late 80s in The Go-Betweens and is a member of award-winning Brisbane group Halfway. He is Senior Lecturer in Music at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
‘Electronic Cities: Music, Policies and Spaces in the 21st Century is a welcome contribution to the “urban turn” in popular music studies. It moves beyond the analysis of styles and venues, setting musical practice within complex networks of policy, economic history and metropolitan politics. These fascinating case studies take us beyond the self-proclaimed “capitals” of electronic music, into a rich variety of cities whose abandoned urban spaces became breeding grounds for music seeking to invent new futures.’
—Will Straw, Department of Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University, Montreal
This book examines Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scenes in 18 cities across Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. It focuses on the historical development of these scenes, with an emphasis on the post-2000 context, including the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching effects. Expert contributors highlight the influence of geographical contexts, as well as cultural and political histories, in the development of mainstream EDM scenes and underground Electronic Dance Music Cultures. This expansive work offers additional insights on cultural and creative policies, planning interventions and regulations associated with nightlife management, and provides a detailed analysis of current challenges inherent to the governance of EDM scenes in contemporary cities.