This book focuses on the relationships between underground urban music cultures in Los Angeles and specific urban imaginaries related to music practices, far away and sometimes in stark opposition to the commodified image of the city crafted by urban planners and associated urban stakeholders. Rather than this commodified city, and the ‘imaginary city’ of the mind, it examines the accidental, tangential life of a mirage. The city that appears in the distance is one that is formed by songs and music-making. The book shows how counter urban imaginaries emerge and are performed through diverse underground music making practices, giving rise to alternative ways of seeing the city.

This book focuses on the relationships between underground urban music cultures in Los Angeles and specific urban imaginaries related to music practices, far away and sometimes in stark opposition to the commodified image of the city crafted by urban planners and associated urban stakeholders. Rather than this commodified city, and the ‘imaginary city’ of the mind, it examines the accidental, tangential life of a mirage. The city that appears in the distance is one that is formed by songs and music-making. The book shows how counter urban imaginaries emerge and are performed through diverse underground music making practices, giving rise to alternative ways of seeing the city.