Global culture,local politics

A number of local authorities have, in the last ten years, built or subsidized venues for rock and pop concerts. Previously, such ventures were left to the private sector. This article explores the reasons for this local state involvement, and draws attention to its importance for the study of leisure in general, and popular music in particular. It argues that local authorities have moved into popular music provision to meet new political and economic goals, but that such moves can only be explained fully by changes in popular culture itself. Accounting for direct political support of ‘commercial’ entertainment highlights a key fact about leisure: that its politics are located in both its organization and its enjoyment.