Volker Kirchberg's criticism of a hierarchically implemented cultural policy is based
on the presumption that the current obsession of urban governments to generate
>creative cities< from the top down might not bring expected results. Instead,
he proposes that successful creative self-governance is a bottom-up process, which
can be exemplified by the specific urban structures and socio -political functions
of two local popular music scenes in Baltimore, the Baltimore Club scene and
the Experimental/Instrumental scene. Both scenes are illustrations for a musical
creativity that has prospered in Baltimore over the last years not despite but
because of the lack of any top-down governmental interventions.