Rethinking music geography through the mainstream: a geographical analysis of Frank Sinatra, music and travel

Journal article


Milburn, K (2017). Rethinking music geography through the mainstream: a geographical analysis of Frank Sinatra, music and travel. Social & Cultural Geography. 20 (5), pp. 730-754. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2017.1375550
AuthorsMilburn, K
Abstract

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published online by Taylor & Francis in Social and Cultural Geography on 20 September 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14649365.2017.1375550

This paper brings a new perspective to music geography by focusing on how a particular mainstream musician helped to construct, subvert, and circulate meanings associated with travel. It asserts that Frank Sinatra, via his music and actions, engaged with travel in ways that frequently ran counter to how it has commonly been enacted in American music and popular culture. Particular attention is paid to the singer’s travel-themed album, Come Fly With Me. By the time of its release in 1958, Sinatra, via a public persona that encompassed performer, ‘playboy’ and businessman, was a central figure in promoting an alignment of leisured mobility with postwar economic success. The paper interrogates how Sinatra’s celebrity allowed him to embody travel in certain real and imagined ways. It also examines what the resulting representations revealed about performances of gender, ethnicity, and status, and the expected modes of behaviour that were associated with them, in America’s postwar consumer-driven society.

KeywordsHuman Geography; Cultural Studies; Geography
Year2017
JournalSocial & Cultural Geography
Journal citation20 (5), pp. 730-754
PublisherRoutledge (Taylor & Francis Group)
ISSN1464-9365
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2017.1375550
Publication dates
Print2019
Publication process dates
Deposited26 Oct 2017
Accepted03 Aug 2017
Accepted author manuscript
Page range1-25
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https://openresearch.lsbu.ac.uk/item/86x96

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