Gibson, Chris 1973-

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Gibson, Chris 1973-

PERSONAL:

Born 1973. Education: University of Sydney, B.A. (honors), Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Wollongong, Rm. 41.G08, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Geographer, educator, and writer. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, associate professor of human geography. Previously taught at the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, and the University of Western Sydney, all in Australia. Also councilor of the Geographical Society of New South Wales, deputy convenor of the IAG Cultural Geography Study Group, node convenor for the ARC Cultural Research Network, and an associate of the Industrial Relations Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.

WRITINGS:

(With John Connell) Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Peter Dunbar-Hall) Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia, University of New South Wales Press (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia), 2004.

(With John Connell) Music and Tourism: On the Road Again, Channel View Publications (Clevedon, Somerset, England), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Sydney: The Emergence of a World City, edited by J. Connell, Oxford University Press, 2000; The Culture and Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia, edited by W.B. Kim, Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements, 2001; FreeNRG: Notes from the Edge of the Dance Floor, edited by G. St. John, Common Ground, 2001; Belonging in the Rainbow Region: Cultural Perspectives on the North Coast of NSW, edited by H. Wilson, Southern Cross University Press, 2003; The Cultural Industries and the Production of Culture, D. Power and A. Scott, Routledge, 2004; Talking about Sydney: Population, Community and Culture in Contemporary Sydney, edited by B. Randolph, R. Freestone, and C. Butler-Bowdon, Historic Houses Trust, 2006; Ethnomusicology: A Contemporary Reader, edited by J. Post, Routledge, 2006; Companion Encyclopaedia of Geography: From Local to Global, edited by I. Douglas, R. Huggett, and C. Perkins, Routledge, 2006; and Culture, Urbanism and Planning, edited by J. Monclus and M. Guardia, Ashgate, 2006. Contributor to periodicals, including Cultural Studies, Altitude, Tourism Geographies, Geographical Research, Geography, Human Geography, Urban Policy and Research, Journal of the Australasian Housing Institute, Australian Geographer, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Built Environment, Progress in Human Geography, Perfect Beat: Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Area, Indonesian Journal of Geography, Social and Cultural Geography, Transformations, Ethnomusicology, and Popular Music and Society.

SIDELIGHTS:

Chris Gibson is a human geographer whose research focuses on social geography, the history and philosophy of geography, economic geography, creative industries, cities and regions, and tourism. He is also the coauthor of several books. Gibson is the author, with John Connell, of Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place. In their book, the authors examine the relationships among popular music, space, and identity, from inner-city musical scenes to the music of various nations. "The result is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging geographical treatment of music to date; both an encyclopedia of individual sounds (and scenes) and a sound of its own," wrote David Butz in the Canadian Geographer.

Overall, the authors' book explores the various influences on the changing structure and geographies of music, from cultures and local economics to politics and technology. The authors also examine the spread of indigenous cultural music to a globalized music market and include numerous case studies that illustrate the changing relationships between music and space. Popular Music and Society contributor Michael J. Kramer noted that Sound Tracks "organizes a vast amount of information, synthesizing recent scholarship on popular music, place, and identity" and that it includes "a dizzying array of complicated subjects." In his review in the Canadian Geographer, Butz wrote: "The chapters build nicely on one another and in concert provide a thorough overview of music geography as an area of scholarship with links to related disciplines. Issues of commodification, culture, fixity, fluidity and authenticity re-emerge as a unifying conceptual refrain throughout the chapters."

In Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia, Gibson and coauthor Peter Dunbar-Hall focus on the Australian Aboriginal artists and their contemporary music performances. Among the artists they discuss are Kev Carmody, Tiddas, Troy Cassar-Daley, Ruby Hunter, Coloured Stone, Jimmy Little, Archie Roach, the Warumpi Band, and Yothu Yindi. The authors explore the musicians' and musical groups' various styles and examine contemporary issues such as the globalization of world music, land rights, identity and independence, and the tourism industry of Australia's Northern Territory. The book includes a discography of all the authors discussed, photos, and reproductions of album covers and posters.

Katelyn Barney, writing in Popular Music and Society, noted that Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places "fills an important gap in the literature by providing a refreshing social and political critique of a broad range of musical styles, Aboriginal performers and contemporary issues." Barney went on to write in the same review that the authors present "an important contribution to the discourse relating to contemporary Aboriginal music and is an accessible, easy-to-read introduction to many emerging and more established Aboriginal artists, songs, and recordings."

Gibson and coauthor John Connell discuss the niche of music tourism in their book Music and Tourism: On the Road Again. The authors begin by providing a historical background to music tourism, including tourism within a European and classical musical context. They discuss the economics of the musical tourism niche and the significance of music tourism for personal and place identities. They also examine the different experiences of travel, from the common hedonistic aspects of travel to more religious and cultural aspects such as travel associated with pilgrimages. In addition, the book covers specific festivals that highlight the most prominent aspects of music tourism.

In the book's preface, the authors note: "Tourism has boomed in recent decades and a key component has been the rise of cultural tourism. Music tourism is one part of that and one that has hitherto never been documented in comprehensive form. This book seeks to do just that, and provide a global perspective on this rapidly evolving phenomenon across all continents and musical genres. Twenty years ago, such a book, might not have been possible; even a decade ago it might only have discussed Graceland, Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis. In this century, the proliferation of musical events and tourist sites obliges such a book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Geographer, spring, 2004, David Butz, review of Sound Tracks: Popular Music, Identity, and Place, p. 84.

Geographical Research, November, 2005, review of Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places: Contemporary Aboriginal Music in Australia.

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, December, 2005, Katie Milestone, review of Sound Tracks, p. 1000.

Popular Music and Society, February, 2005, Michael J. Kramer, review of Sound Tracks, p. 126; December, 2006, Katelyn Barney, review of Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places, p. 633.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of Music and Tourism: On the Road Again, p. 219.