The idea of landscapes is at the very heart of the subject of geography. Before trying to explore the different landscapes inspiring the tracks on The Joshua Tree it is important to set out what is meant by the term landscape, though this is more complicated than it might initially sound...
“Geographically, the concept of landscape refers to a part of the Earth’s surface viewed as a whole, including a set of phenomena, their characteristics, and those aspects of the biophysical and human environment that are influential. Alexander von Humboldt defined landscape as “the total character of an Earth region”. As such, it subsumes three core concepts of geography – space, place and environment – and can lay claim to providing geographers with their elusive ‘object of study’.” (Matthews and Herbert, 2008, p. 100).
Creating a specific definition of a landscape is immensely challenging, as landscape is going to mean different things to different people. For a human geographer, landscape may conjure up ideas of cultural representations which structure the world we live in. For physical geographer, the word landscape might invoke landforms like mountains, lakes etc.
Landscapes mean different things to different people, at different times and in different situations. As a result, different landscapes are going to inspire different people in different ways. The project unpacks some of the landscapes which were inspirational to one group of people (the band U2), namely one man (the lead singer Bono), at a specific period of time (mainly the 1980s, with some influences from before then). In many respects, these 11 songs can be seen as maps or signposts pointing the listener to these different landscapes.
Looking for a moment more broadly at the subject of music, it is clear to see that music has played a considerable role in everyday life in the postmodern era. Music meets a variety of personal needs and is one of the main channels of communication in our world today. As we listen to music, we share our emotions, intentions and meanings with the singer and others. Music is a means of expression, capable of reflecting the full range of human emotions (Ahmadi, 2011). In addition to stirring emotions, song lyrics can also educate and inform the listeners on a particular subject or location (Jurmu, 2005). Music has the ability to conjure up powerful images of place and feelings of deep attachment to place (Hudson, 2006). Music is also connected to power. It can be seen as an economic resource, part of the heritage of a place or society and integral to the identity of social or political groups (Kearney, 2010).
The development of technology has played a critical role in the production, distribution and consumption of music (Deichmann, 2014). This has provided different opportunities for us to listen to music whenever and wherever we want (Ahmadi, 2011). Ultimately, we all as individuals associate music with space, and so through looking and listening to the way that music is played, lyrics are sung, but most importantly the lyrics which are sung, landscapes can be portrayed to the listener. Previous research has also shown how sound, music and sonic media are involved in the construction and mediation of urban, rural, public and private environments, the production of identity and difference, and the exercise of power through space (Gallagher and Prior, 2014).
Considering how the physical surroundings (or landscapes) have long been known to inspire musicians, it is surprising that this aspect of geography and music has not been studied more extensively (Jurmu, 2005). Nash (1996) lamented, ‘it is…a mystery to many as to why cultural geographers have paid so little attention to music because it influences virtually all aspects of culture and manifests itself in numerous spatial ways’ (Hudson, 2006). Though the amount of work on the subject is lacking in parts, a significant piece of work, Nash and Carney (1996) identified seven themes of music geography: (1) origins of music; (2) world distribution; (3) location analysis; (4) source areas; (5) trends based upon electricity; (6) impacts of music on landscapes; and (7) global music (Deichmann, 2014).
When studying music, it can often be difficult to distinguish between the effects of the music and the effects of the lyrics. You take the music away from the lyrics, and the song is very different. Some would go to the extent of saying that much of the meanings behind the lyrics in U2 songs, are often lost on the audience, due to the music, though it would be right to point out that the fame and success of U2 is built upon its musical performances as a whole, rather than solely just the lyrics of the songs (Ahmadi, 2011). In this project, the focus is on the lyrics, though there are references to particular aspects of the musical accompaniment for several of the songs.