). , wagon tracks, tough men, hats. , 1998; Gibson, 2002); Gibson and Connell, 200
). Sometimes visual and audio texts combine to represent places in a particular way, such as in music videos and film soundtracks – or in festivals where music is combined with stage performances, dance, room design and decoration, and other visual elements. The imagined places of country music were "the landscape of nostalgic salvation and escape from the cold, impersonality of the contemporary cityscape" (Lewis, 1997, p. suggests that it is seen as country music "defined in opposition to metropolitan norms" (Smith, 199
, p. it. Gibson, D. Such estimates of music venues reflect, to some extent, the accumulation of production infrastructures, the raw number of active musicians, and the continuous recording of a relatively dense cast; in other cases, such associations are created as part of media campaigns and local marketing strategies, "invented traditions" (Hobsbawm, 1983) that have become central to the tourism industry and the music economy (Atkinson, 1997; Cohen, 1997; Gibson and Connell 200
) . rural areas.
