Rockmuseum Munich - the highest DIY museum in the world?

Although last month my data collection for the project officially concluded, a brief trip to Munich, Germany, has enabled me to expand my fieldwork sites by one with a visit to Rockmuseum Munich. No interviews were conducted here but it was a delight to discover this little gem tucked away in a famous Munich tourist attraction.

The Ramones Museum in Berlin

After my successful trip to Germany last year visiting the Lippmann + Rau Musikarchiv in Eisenach and the Klaus Kuhnke Archiv fur Populare Musik in Bremen, it is great to be able to return to this hot house of popular music preservation; this time to Berlin to see the Ramones Museum. This is only the second artist-dedicated museum I have visited for this research, the other one being KD's Elvis Presley Museum in New Zealand, and the two examples of this kind of heritage enterprise are very different.

Are DIY archives sustainable?

I had hoped to make it back to Germany later this year to visit Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg and so was sad to learn of the museum’s recent closure. Once again this year (see my post from 29 January 2013) the issue of the sustainability of DIY archives has been brought to the fore.

The ‘archipelago’ that is the Lippmann & Rau Music Archive, Eisenach (Germany)

I had no idea what to expect on my visit to Eisenach, a town of 40,000 people in the former East Germany. Eisenach is home to the Lippmann & Rau Music Archive, formerly the Internationales Jazzarchiv. When I arrived I had not yet had confirmation of my visit to the archive and this gave me some time to find out about the town. What I discovered in my visits to Eisenach's museums and to Wartburg Castle was that Eisenach is a really interesting place with strong theological connections (Martin Luther) and historical links to a number of important classical musicians (Wagner, Telemann and Bach).

Visit to Klaus Kuhnke Archiv

Another whirlwind trip to Europe has begun. First stop, the Klaus Kuhnke Archiv fur Populare Musik in Bremen, Germany.

Forthcoming fieldwork trip to Bremen, Germany

I'm in the process of organising my next stint of overseas fieldwork. This will be another trip to Europe, beginning mid-April. So far I've lined up a visit to the Klaus-Kuhnke-Archiv für Populäre Musik in Bremen, Germany.