Reasons To Be Cheerful

A post about good things happening in cities & places around the world.

Taking influence from Reasons to Be Cheerful, the terrific online magazine David Byrne founded (he also wrote one of my favourite books - How Music Works), I thought I would outline our own reasons to be cheerful and demonstrate initiatives that are making places better. The more we shine a light on actionable work being done to improve communities and enhance music ecosystems, the more it will foster positive change. This is the objective of Making Places Better - to demonstrate a solutions-oriented approach to urban development through music and culture and the crux of my book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better (and note the David Byrne fandom continuing there and pre-order at the link).

I hope the below inspires you, wherever you are, to act in your community. 

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Reason to be Cheerful #1 - Festivals Are, in Some Places, Booking More Women 

According to Book More Women, the percentage of female acts at the 8 largest festivals in the US increased from 27.1% in 2018 to 39.8% in 2022. There’s a long way to go here (In the U.K., only 13% of headliners in 2022 were female according to the BBC), but this statistic is encouraging and the general trend - that the status quo is not acceptable - is a reason to be cheerful. What if we went a step further? Let’s think about a reality where cities - and their targets to support diversity, equity and inclusion provided incentives to festivals to diversify. This is not a pipedream; in Barcelona, a model is being developed that assesses local festivals based on a variety of economic and social indicators (including gender diversity) and it is that assessment that determines the amount of public support the festival receives. There are reasons to believe this will become more of a norm than an exception. Despite this slow pace of change, this IS changing, and this is a reason to be cheerful.  

Reason to be Cheerful #2 - The New Australian Music Strategy Is A Model for Us All

This year, the Australian government committed to long-term investment in its music industry to the tune of $69.4 million AUD (about $45 million USD). This funding is secured in the capital budget and is the largest investment in the country’s history. At the same time, a new report was written that outlines the scale of the problem and what is required to address sexual violence in live music in Australia, and provincial governments in New South Wales, Victoria and elsewhere have committed to more investment in music. Australia is, at present, a reason to be cheerful, because they are investing heavily in their music economy. 

Reason to be Cheerful #3 - Texas and Their Music-Friendly Communities

Over 40 communities across Texas - large and small - have been granted the status of Music Friendly by the Office of the Governor, through a program to boost local economies and tourism through music and culture. The Texas Music Office provides a template that, if the city completes, grants them a status that can be used to attract tourism and local investment, so long as they keep their data collection current. What started with Fort Worth in 2016 now includes 40 communities (large and small) across the state, and now similar initiatives are being developed in North Carolina and other places.

When we state something matters in policy, it convinces folks that it, indeed, matters. This is what is happening across Texas right now and I believe, in a few years time, this will be commonplace across the states and elsewhere. 

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I’m not done. There’s more. But to continue, please consider supporting Making Places Better and becoming a paid subscriber. Here you will enjoy more detailed content, research, and data - as well as the ability to comment, contribute to posts and request topics to explore in the Substack..

25% of all donations will go to the Center for Music Ecosystems & all contributions will support independent research and evidence-gathering to demonstrate the value of music and culture in making places better. 

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So there we are - 3 reasons to be cheerful (plus more if you’ve upgraded to paid). And to continue, here’s another reason - let me introduce you to our next Agent of Change, Codie Gopher.  

Who? Codie is the founder of Slow Motion Soundz, a hip-hop production company in Huntsville, Alabama. He also has curated hip-hop and Black music exhibits at the Alabama Hall of Fame and runs the 7-2 Experience, a community development organization supporting Black and minority-led music and culture in North Alabama and Huntsville Hip-Hop Tech, a conference and incubator program. 

What Is He Doing? Codie is a one-man sales force for Huntsville, Alabama and the power of hip-hop as local economic development. His work connecting music with politics in a positive way is one of the reasons why Huntsville has emerged as one of America’s leading music-friendly cities. 

Why Should We Care? Codie has demonstrated how powerful music can be to bring a community together and through it, mapped an incredible resource that all of us can access to make places better - hip-hop. From his curatorial work to his music production, his lecturing, and his TEDx talk, Codie demonstrates the power of positive, bottom-up community leadership through music. He’s an inspiration to me and many others, and you should all get to know him. 

If you want to learn more….here is his LinkedIn.