Open AccessThe Pool of Life: Liverpool, Rock Music and the Roots of Urban Creativity
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
built environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 36
ISSN - 0263-7960
DOI - 10.2148/benv.46.2.313
Subject(s) - creativity , poetry , the arts , blues , jazz , consciousness , sociology , history , aesthetics , creative city , visual arts , media studies , art history , art , literature , psychology , political science , law , neuroscience
During the 1960s (and with a slight reprise in the 1980s) Liverpool, an apparently peripheral, worn out and bomb damaged British seaport, saw an extraordinary burst in urban creativity, centred on rock music, poetry and the visual arts, and culminating in the emergence of the Beatles. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung referred to Liverpool as 'the Pool of Life'; poet Allen Ginsberg as the 'centre of consciousness of the human universe'. Why did it happen at all, and of all places, why did it happen in Liverpool? This paper looks for explanations in economic and cultural history, in the biographies of key individuals, in the little known connections between Liverpool's history and the emergence of American blues and country music, and in insights from various theories of creativity and innovation. It asks whether there are lessons for other cities looking for regeneration in cultural and creative policies, whether there are lessons for Liverpool, and not least whether Liverpool might yet see a further burst of creative output.