Informal Music Events, a Subculture’s Claim to the City

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of informal music events, as a subcultural practice, in Melbourne, focusing on their potential to be recognised as an exercising of the right to the city through the theoretical lenses of place and social capital. This area of study was chosen in an attempt to shed light on potential inequalities within the production space of Melbourne. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used to gauge the presence of place processes and social capital within informal music events and understand the experience of these events from the point of view of the event organisers. The six place processes were found to be present along with two social capital typologies, indicating that there is place-based social value to this subculture that would make it valuable for mediation with planners and policy makers. Informal music events were found to be an alternative to the competitive formal live music venues, but also served as a key creative starting point that allowed organisers to access these formal venues later. This competitive creative environment was perceived to be related to policy such as the late-night freeze and the urban redevelopment of Melbourne’s inner municipalities. If planners are to foster creative subcultures that create social value within the city, then there needs to be a mediation of claims to the city to ensure that less economically viable subcultures may access formal spaces to prevent urban conflicts around land usage.