Manchester Music City

Manchester Music City is a data visualization project inspired by John Robb’s 586-page book Manchester Music City 1976–1996. The project translates this dense cultural history into a network-based visual narrative.

Beyond musical emotion, technique, or performance, the project is driven by a desire to recontextualize artists, bands, and movements within their broader socio-economic environment. It connects personal stories with larger historical forces, showing how scenes emerge from relationships, encounters, shared spaces, and collective energy.

Full view of the Manchester project

Bands do not appear in isolation. They form because people meet. Projects are born from friendships, tensions, emotions, and specific moments in time. This is precisely what John Robb’s book captures.

Robb was both a witness and an active participant in the Manchester scene. As a musician, journalist, and TV presenter, he occupied a unique position that allowed him to gather testimonies, memories, and connections from within the movement itself.

Network map of artists, venues, labels, and relationships in Manchester’s music scene

The resulting visualization reinforces a simple but powerful idea: nothing and no one exists alone. Artists, labels, venues, and audiences are deeply interconnected, forming an ecosystem that enables certain scenes to flourish.

The project ultimately raises a broader question. Why do extraordinary cultural movements emerge in specific places at specific moments. Why Manchester. Why then.

“Of course the Stone Roses came from Manchester. Where else could they have come from. And The Smiths. And Joy Division. Where else could Ian Curtis come from. And Factory Records. And The Hacienda. It’s obvious. All this incredible music comes from a tiny city in the north of England. People around the world ask me why Manchester is like this. I tell them I have no idea.”
— Noel Gallagher