Cities shape the music that is made in them.
Think of the music that has emerged from Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga across genres and generations.
How can - and should - music help drive what cities are and what they can be?
Shain Shapiro tackles that question in his book “This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better,” recently published by Repeater Books and Penguin Random House.
![Shain Shapiro](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b7ae633/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2488x2482+0+0/resize/880x878!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F47%2Ffa%2F55892a924cc3a26c1fef51e9c4a9%2Fshain-shapiro.jpg)
From Canada and now based in London, Shain is the founder and chairman of Sound Diplomacy, a consultancy firm that works with cities on cultural policy - and he heads the Center for Music Ecosystems, a nonprofit which researches how music can help communities around the world to solve problems.
Last month, Shain visited Chattanooga during his book tour - appearing at Yellow Racket Records.
I spoke with him before his talk and a panel discussion that he moderated, presented by SoundCorps.
![“This Must Be the Place” cover.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8b2296c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/534x842+0+0/resize/880x1388!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb2%2F0c%2F41eff4ed466ea184db3f63ea148c%2Fthis-must-be-the-place-book.png)