Music

The Geography of Popular Music via Coachella

Is Stockholm the world capital of music? Richard Florida maps the geography of popular music using the announced lineup for the 2012 Coachella Music Festival.

17 January 2012 - 5:00am

The Atlantic Cities

Follow the Music... In Central Park

Brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay team up with Brooklyn-based developer, Bradley Feldman, to create a "location-aware album" app for Central Park.

23 December 2011 - 12:00pm

ASLA's The Dirt blog

Rich, Poor and Outcasts Coexist on Brazil's Rua Augusta

Brazil's economic boom has revitalized the five-block Rua Augusta and turned it into a "cultural blast furnace," writes Vincent Bevins for the Los Angeles Times.

5 October 2011 - 10:00am

Los Angeles Times

Does Dallas-Fort Worth's Urban Form Affect Its Music Scene?

Observer music writers Pete Freeman and Daniel Hopkins debate the affects of suburban sprawl on the local music scene.

21 July 2011 - 11:00am

Dallas Observer

Cab's Eye View of L.A.

When other musicians opt to romanticize L.A. with images of Hollywood and Malibu mansions, pop band Death Cab for Cutie captures the opposite in the music video for their new single, "Home Is A Fire."

24 June 2011 - 1:00pm

Sustainable Cities Collective

A New Way to Listen to Cities

A new website offers a compelling way to understand cities through sound. It combines audio feeds from city police radios with ambient music.

28 April 2011 - 1:00pm

99% Invisible

Courtin' Participation With a Bluegrass Music Video

To kick off its Legacy Plan update process, the Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, NC planning board made a music video featuring an original song, a bluegrass band and some familiar scenes.

28 March 2011 - 11:00am

Winston-Salem Journal

Urban Favorites

The Polis Blog presents a huge list of "urban favorites" -- songs, movies, initiatives and places that explain or highlight the best of the world's urban areas.

15 January 2011 - 5:00am

The Polis Blog

Abhijeet Chavan

10 Urban Planning Songs

Thu, 12/09/2010 - 09:05

Musician David Byrne, formerly the leader of theband Talking Heads and now an advocate of bike-friendly urban planning, remarked in a recent interview :

"…if somebody could write a song about [city planning] I'd have to stand up and cheer for them. No. There are some things you just can't write songs about."

While there may not be popular songs specifically mentioning urban planning, there are many songs about cities and the impact of planning decisions. Here are my 10 of favorites.

(Update Dec 10: I added 5 more songs suggested by readers.)

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Are We Living in a Golden Age?

It depends on your criteria, says Aaron M. Renn. A golden age of accessibility and consumption? Yes. But is it better to be in an era of plenty, or an era of creation and discovery?

27 September 2010 - 1:00pm

The Urbanophile

Rappin' About Urbanism

Finnish architect Tuomas Toivonen has just released an album of urbanism- and architecture-themed rap songs.

21 September 2010 - 1:00pm

City Of Sound

A Musical Commentary on Suburban Sprawl

The new album by Arcade Fire is themed around suburban sprawl, offering an interesting commentary on city planning and development.

19 August 2010 - 11:00am

SPUR Urbanist

Friday Funny: Brazil Mayor Fights the Funk

Due to its pounding beat and often sexual themes, funk music has been banned from Carnival by the mayor of a small Brazilian town.

12 February 2010 - 2:00pm

Reuters

DJ BLDGBLOG

Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG joins WFMU's DJ/Rupture as a guest selecter, offering some musical picks and discussion about the architecture of sound -- and the sound of architecture.

16 December 2009 - 8:00am

WFMU

The Most Musical Cities in North America

This chart from the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto looks at North America's musical epicenters -- cities where the most music is produced.

17 November 2009 - 6:00am

Creative Class Exchange

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1 comment

Best Cities to See Live Music

Here's another way to rank your city- the Society of American Travel Writers surveyed their members on the Top 10 cities to see live music. New Orleans comes in over Austin, home of the famed SXSW festival.

8 September 2009 - 9:00am

Society of American Travel Writers

Tim Halbur

Architecture You Can Dance To

Thu, 06/18/2009 - 15:12

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to an interview with the band Blitzen Trapper on my iPod. They’ve got a beautiful song called ‘Furr’; the sound echoes 1970s folk rock- and roots influences like English folk, country and bluegrass. Anyway, Eric Early, the main songwriter, got my attention with his answer to this question:

INTERVIEWER: Obviously ‘American music’ means different things to different people. What does it mean to you?

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Cities Embracing Music Festivals

The Austin City Limits music festival, held at the city's major public park, has inspired other cities to invite festivals to their parks, despite the inherent challenges.

26 September 2008 - 6:00am

Austin American-Statesman

Creating the 'Live Music Capital'

A 15-member "live music task force" will begin work to try to encourage the growth of a musical economy in Austin, Texas.

26 March 2008 - 12:00pm

KXAN

Public Pianos Beckon Musicians in Suburban England

Pianos have popped up in random public places in Birmingham, England -- a public art installation that passively invites passersby to take a seat and tickle the ivory.

23 March 2008 - 11:00am

The Guardian