‘You’re My Best Friend’ a consideration of country music, sounds, scenes and communities in Liverpool



Hedges, Susan
‘You’re My Best Friend’ a consideration of country music, sounds, scenes and communities in Liverpool. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

This research thesis is a study of the Country music scene on Merseyside, carried out within a popular music studies framework. This Country scene was once considered by some to be the largest such scene in Europe, but after well over half a century, it now appears to be in terminal decline. This research examines the relationship between the music, the participants and the processes of the scene in order to understand how it developed, how it was sustained, and what might have been the circumstances, which contributed to its eventual decline. The research covers a wide variety of inter-disciplinary areas such as oral history, document research, genre analysis, structural and semiotic analysis, considerations of scenes, ‘thirdspace’ and localities, cultural geography, etc, all in an attempt to understand how and why this particular music genre, thrived and then declined on Merseyside. The origins and pathways of the global flow of music into the city of Liverpool were considered by this researcher, as was the importance of key individuals, venues and physical cultural places in the construction and maintenance of the scene. This research also covers areas that could be regarded as holding great significance, both positive and negative, regarding this scene. These include issues related to translocal and virtual Country music scenes, the Cowboy image, the line-dance phenomenon, originality and pastiche and authenticity (or lack thereof) of certain artists and bands. The demise of what now remains of the local scene involved research in situ over a fifteen-month period at one of the last local Country music communities in Liverpool at The Melrose Abbey Public House, Liverpool. This research displays how this community had adopted, developed and displayed rituals and practices of immense significance that not only prolonged the scene’s survival but also left an indelible mark on the local community.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information: Date: 2014-11 (completed)
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2016 13:47
Last Modified: 16 Dec 2022 04:43
DOI: 10.17638/02028961
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/2028961