Reads

Monomaniacs  
Mono is the Japanese word for “things,”  “material objects,” and “worldly possessions.” Though neither singular nor plural – the distinction is not part of the language – the emphasis in Tokyo is decidedly on the latter. Thus, paradoxically, monomaniac has come to mean the obsessive collector of “more-is-more” in less and less room. You take a liking to something, it absorbs you totally, and quite naturally it fills all your available space. Your walls get covered up, the ceiling recedes from view, and gradually the squared-off angles of your interior melt into rounded, irregular cavities. Your space has not only taken on a personality, but to anyone with like tastes, it has become more inviting than the most luxury penthouse. Overflowing with treasures, these quarters seem just slightly warmer than your usual streamlined modern home. No, it’s not the extra insulation of all that clutter – it’s the rebounding passion of the enthusiastic occupants.

Source: Tsuzuki, Kyoichi. (1999) Tokyo: A Certain Style, San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 226 

"Scenes are found in a multitude of locations, with kaleidoscopic mutations of global sounds and ways of consuming sub-cultural products. Within this diversity, the collective output of some locations has 'broken through' into international music distribution and secured a reputation for a particular 'sound'. In part this occurs because a few local music cultures are genuinely distinct and innovative, but specific 'sounds' are also bound up in wider processes through which places are mythologised: a fetishisation of localities (Appadurai 1990: 16; Mitchell 1996: 87). In the conventional narrative of music dispersal, styles are generally deemed to have originated from an individual or collective 'scene', generating new interest in the sites of production. The existence of music infrastructures explains part of this process - as the 'grassroots' of local styles from which music then disseminates through national distribution networks and (perhaps) through to global audiences. Cultural origins for a scene or style can often be traced to particular groups of musicians, producers and audiences - specific contexts from which a 'sound' develops and disseminates. The Motown sound relied on entrepreneurs like Berry Gordy and a specific set of songwriters and performers, as did Seattle grunge (with SubPop Records) and San Francisco  psychedelia. Such 'authenticity' in music begins with individual musicians and performers, who are seen as credible if they can trace their roots back to organic, local scenes. Notions of 'paying your dues' or having emerged from a vibrant scene shroud the ways in which music products in contemporary mediascapes are shroud the ways in which music products in contemporary mediascapes are always constructed (even the releases of the most authentic' artists are accompanied by marketing campaigns, press releases, conver artwork and production values that create and sustain credibility). The identification of musical difference through regional sounds is an integral component of the fetishisation of place - securing the 'authenticity' of local cultural products in particular physical spaces as they move through national and  and global economies. Connections to place emphasise  roots and points of origin. Remaining 'true' to one's roots emphasises credibility. Thus Ian McCulloch, lead singer of echo and the Bunnymen, after twenty years of performance 'is not just loyal to his roots. He has lived in Liverpool all his life and has no intention of leaving' (Shedden 2001: 17). Wider geographical variations (from city to city, region to region) serve to authenticate musical differences.

 "The authenticity of the 'local' is partly created from within: the activities of a few bands might lead to the growth of new venues and attract interest from record companies and the music press, and the city, town or region is entrenched in music folklore...Assertions of local 'sounds' are never wholly created within places. While local authorities, media, corporations and musicians often entrench territorial claims or emphasise difference through identification with regional 'sounds', they also form part of a mythology of 'the local' created from beyond: a commercially constructed strategic essentialism of place".

Source: Connell, John and Chris Gibson. (2003) Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place, London: Routledge, 110-112. 

Quoted Source Bibliography: Appadurai, A. (1990) Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy, Public Culture 2(2), 1-24. 

Mitchell, T. (1996) Popular Music and Local Identity, Leicester University Press, London and New York. 

Shedden, I. (2001) Echoes of the past, The Australian, July 21, R16-17.