Genoa as a “music city”. A strategy to move toward a creative economy.

Still nowadays, the Italian collective imagination depicts Genoa and its Region (Liguria) as the “land of music”, especially according to two main symbolic references. The first one concerns the city of Genoa and its heritage in terms of “songwriters school”, which especially from the ‘50s to the 80’s grew up a significant component of the most accomplished Italian songwriters (Fabrizio De André above all). Then, the Genoese “school” fostered and spread a particular genre at national level, enhancing the importance of the political issues in its lyrics thus defining a critical approach to the song writing that, some decades later, will be “inherited” and “updated” by the more radical and anti-establishment contemporary rap writers. The second reference regards the Sanremo Festival (hosted in the city of Sanremo within Liguria Region), the main Italian singing event hence, at the same time, the main context of reproduction and definition of national popular taste in music, due to its media coverage and the stable public success that it still confirm in its every annual edition since almost fifty years ago. Furthermore, the Genoese area has also “produced” some important underground bands and singers, contributing to creation of the Italian alternative music scene, which emerged during the ‘90s.

This inspiring mixture of mainstream, underground and critical attitudes for the local music scene thus represents an interesting background for policy actions which aim at supporting and attracting young people to the city. Moreover, back in the ‘90s a very important sociological research[1] on the Genoese local scene highlighted how this area might be considered as a significant experimental laboratory for the definition of new patterns of matching among innovations, creativity and productivity in the post-industrial era. The authors of the research stated: “the creative processes and the communicative tension unfold in the [Genoese] urban reality, which is seen, at  a national level, as a laboratory of the reconversion, a place where the State has undertaken to declare and to realise the ‘post-industrial’ pattern - and let's remember it – as a City where the unemployment percentages leave incredible ‘space’, and above all time, for the development of the so-called creative activities. But, at the same time, [some parts of] Genoa are an urban ghetto, with all of its tensions and contradictions, where the urban pulse gets visible and tangible, “feeding” and stimulating the creative and artistic sensibilities with its ferment” (Caccialanza, Di Massa, Torti 1994:79).

The issue here is that of analysing the reasons why a city that is demonstrates such a strong connection with the musical production has ever managed to express a suitably strong cultural industry.

It is truth that the cores of the Italian cultural industry have always been Rome and Milan, as much it is truth that Genoa and the Liguria Region have historically represented an important reference in terms of creative contributions and consumption.

Under this perspective, the decision of the Municipality of Genoa to develop, a local action plan – within the GEN_Y project – focusing on the music sector is a turning point. The main idea is to raise awareness of Genoa as a music and creative city connecting the past of the city with its future.

During the latest project meeting, held in Genoa on the 7^th and 8^th of November, two main public events have triggered a wide debate on the music and creative issues. The conference “The music and the creative industries. Data, experiences and future developments” (Museo di S. Agostino 07.11) was focused on the Generation Y lifestyle; through the dialogue among four music experts (Pierfrancesco Pacoda, journalist and essayist;  Paolo Magaudda, researcher at the University of Padua, Paolo Madeddu, journalist and blogger and Claudio Buja, president of Ricordi/Universal Music, Italy) it has been possible to define the main trends in the evolution of musical cultures and the relationship between culture and economy. The workshop held on the 8^th of November (Aula magna Disfor, Università di Genova) aimed to present to the public and to the project partners different local best practices. Almost all the speakers (Mattia Solimano, Simone Meneghelli, Roberto Doati, Alessandro Mazzone, Elena Piazza, Andrea Bosio, Maria Elena Buslacchi) were “Generation Y” people and presented best practices in the creative and music sectors and wide range of proposals dealing with spaces for creative activities, the governance systems, the public space use and new business models.

All the practices presented showed how important it is to have a strong public direction and a cooperative governance mix (public-no profit-private). 

During these two days a lot of hints have been gathered by the Municipality.

Now the challenge is, on one hand to aggregate all these suggestions in some clear work strands, and on the other one to combine goals and actions in a local strategy. But the challenge have been accepted. And this is the work the Municipality of Genoa will carry on for the next two years within the framework of the Gen_Y project.