ABSTRACT

Traditionally, tourists are treated as passive media consumers, but this chapter departs from a performance perspective emphasising tourists’ active role. This chapter deals with how popular music affects tourists’ experiences in destinations by exploring the performance of place-making practices by tourists as they engage with music. The performance perspective is complemented with a ritual perspective that also allows an analysis of mundane practices. The problematisation focus on two situations in Liverpool and highlight a number of different practices. The dynamics between planned and unplanned, and scripted and spontaneous performances are explored as well as the mediatized nature of these practices.