This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better [Paperback]

This Must Be the Place explores how music can make cities better.

This Must Be the Place introduces and examines music’s relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed and governed.

Told in an accessible way through personal stories from cities around the world — including London, Melbourne, Nashville, Austin and Zurich — This Must Be the Place takes a truly global perspective on the ways music is integral to everyday life but neglected in public policy.

Arguing for the transformative role of artists and musicians in a post-pandemic world, This Must Be The Place not only examines the powerful impact music can have on our cities, but also serves as a how-to guide and toolkit for music-lovers, artists and activists everywhere to begin the process of reinventing the communities they live in.“Dr. Shain Shapiro has synthesized what I have known all my working life. The more you care for music, the more music cares for you. In fact, you will mess around and fall in love. This is a seminal book by a seminal thinker and one I encourage all interested in music, cities and making our world better to read” - Al Bell, Original Owner, Chairman, Stax Records and Former President, Motown Records Group, songwriter and producer of “I’ll Take You There” (performed by The Staples Singers).

“Shain Shapiro is a long term and astute observer of the way music scenes interact with and bolster the cities they are in and he knows what makes for healthy ecosystems that serve the performers, venues, and public and This Must Be The Place is an engaging and inspiring read for people who believe that music changes lives andl)