Examines a wide range of sound and music cultures, from popular transnational mediations to locally produced, community-based traditions. We consider the ways that music takes on meaning, represents identities and places, and interacts with the world . We trace the historical/economic processes by which music cultures emerge and are sustained (or not). We look at the emotional and economic roles that music plays in lives of musicians, composers and listeners. Using theories from ethnomusicology, anthropology, musicology and cultural studies we show how music is affected by and reflects social change, colonisation and indigeneity, technology and local/global economic processes.