Musique, villes et scènes: localisation et production de l’authenticité dans le rap en France et aux États-Unis

Associations between music and spaces are to be encountered on many levels in French and American rap music: rappers claim to « represent » cities or neighborhoods, stylistic specificities of American rap are explained by the urban contexts in which they emerged, while French rap music is seen by the media as reflecting the sphere of the « banlieue ». How can such associations be understood, where and how are they forged, and to what extent do they contribute to the construction of the authenticity of the music? This dissertation aims to answer these questions by investigating the places in which this local rootedness is constructed, on the basis of in-depth fieldwork in four cities: Atlanta and Minneapolis/Saint-Paul, in the U.S., and in the urban areas of Paris and Lille, in France. The thesis considers the geographic imaginaries embedded in the music, performances in live music venues, the organization of festivals and the circulation of musical styles in order to uncover the chain of production of rap music. It casts light simultaneously on artistic worlds related to this music and on the urban spaces in which it is embedded. Thereby, it uncovers little explored aspects of the location of culture in France and the US, and how it is tied to cities, in a globalized context.