Music, Place, and Gulf Coast Tourism since the BP Oil Spill

Abstract

The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill elicited public concern for the environmental and public health impacts of this disaster, as well as its short- and long-term economic consequences for the Gulf Coast region. Of particular concern to many was the stability of the region's tourism industry, which depends significantly on its white beaches and emerald water. In response to these concerns, BP, according to a corporate press release, promised to spend more than US$179 million to support Gulf Coast tourism between 2010 and 2013. Among their efforts were numerous music and culture festivals stretching from Louisiana to Florida and a television advertising campaign declaring the region to be open for tourism. Many of the musical by-products of BP's recovery funding seem to deny the Gulf Coast's increasing economic and cultural globalization. This essay problematizes the ways in which BP and Gulf Coast tourism organizations alike have deployed musical practices associated with the region to reinforce essentialized understandings of place in their efforts to rehabilitate the Gulf Coast's image following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Consequently, this essay explores the potential impact of such musical constructions of place on public perception of the American South-representations that exist at the intersection of reality and romanticism-in the twenty-first century. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]