Populäre Musik im Museum. Das Museum als Lernort zwischen Vermittlung und Aneignung

Abstract

Along with a general flourishing of museums, popular music has become a
frequent subject of exhibitions in the early 21st century in Germany. The
institutional and historically formed character of museums in general affects these exhibitions, and so do present-day tendencies in popular music
and culture, such as canonization, nostalgia, and cultural gentrification processes. This article explores the mutual effects of popular music and museums by connecting theoretical considerations with the examination of a current exhibition in Essen. As a conclusion, it supports the idea of presenting practices of musicians as well as practices of listeners in exhibitions, instead of reifying music or merely showing memorabilia of musicians generally accepted as canonical.