Maciej Smółka

The Sound of a City: A Study of the Phenomenon
Maciej Smółka
Peter Lang, 2023

Summary
The sound of a city is a cultural phenomenon based on the characteristic relationship between music and the cultural specificity of a given urban area. It occurs when artists from a region create music, which is so unique, it becomes indisputably linked with its place of origin in the public discourse. The link becomes so strong, the phenomenon’s name derives from the name of the city. There were numerous examples of such sounds in popular music history, including the Nashville Sound with its specific country music, the psychedelic rock of the San Francisco Sound, Prince’s the Minneapolis Sound, or the Seattle Sound is also known as grunge. This publication explains the terms in which we should research, analyze, interpret, and define the sound of a city.