Redefining Liverpool’s Purpose as a Music City: Identifying the Cultural, Demographic and Geographic Challenges to a Career in Music for Liverpool’s Black Community

In 2023, Liverpool’s (UK) hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest reinvigorated its UNESCO City of Music status, a title which since 2015 has acknowledged the city’s vibrant music scene and renowned musical heritage. While there are many cultural, economic and visitor economy advantages to Liverpool’s global standing as a music city, there are also downsides for its present-day musicians due to Liverpool’s synonymity with dominant historical musical narratives and sounds. For over a decade, concerns had been expressed within and across Liverpool’s music sector about the long-standing geographic and cultural boundaries experienced by Black people working across Liverpool’s mainstream music ecosystem. In response to these concerns and motivated by the global Black Lives Matter movement, in 2021, the Liverpool City Region Music Board (which gives the music sector a stronger voice in regional decision-making) established a Black Music Action Group (BMAG). Subsequently, BMAG commissioned the first ever survey of Liverpool’s Black music community to develop a more comprehensive understanding of underrepresentation and marginalisation in Liverpool’s music sector, and identify the range of career development barriers encountered by Black musicians and industry professionals. Entitled ReMap, and published in April 2024, the report was the first comprehensive analysis of racism and inequality of opportunity in any regional music sector of the UK. This chapter summarises ReMap’s key findings and recommendations, contextualising them within discussions about Anti-Black racism and discrimination across the music industries. It also places the research within wider debates about the relevance, purpose and function of music cities. The conclusion argues that by adopting a localised approach to enacting change, such as developing professional mentor networks and improving regional representation, music cities have a responsibility and key role to play in ensuring a more equal and representative twenty-first-century music industry.