The diffusion ofclothing trends is inspiredby the bright colors andunique looks from aroundthe world. Fashiondesigners are incorporatingtrends seen in othercountries and makingfashion lines that are seenon the runway today.Modern necklaces found inthe fashion world today areinspired by the big beadsused in African necklaces.The ruffles shown intraditional Latin dresses arealso coming into trend,mainly seen in promdresses. A pop star thatrocks the latest fashiontrends is the famous FionaFlynn. She came from the

Around the world,

traditional clothing is the

inspiration for top fashion

designers into creating the

latest trends

city of Dublin andhad a very casualwardrobe. Whiletouring around theworld, the fashiontrends influenced herwardrobe and nowshe is trending thelatest fashions fads.

Top 100 Songs Around the World:

Irish Popularity

Some Nights

By: Fun We Are Never Ever Getting

Back Together By: Taylor Swift

Good Time

By: Owl City and

Carly Rae Jepsen Blow Me(One

Last Kiss)

By: Pink Whistle

By: Flo Rida

Payphone

By: Maroon 5

Wide Awake

By: Katy Perry

Call Me Maybe

By: Carly Rae Jepsen

The Making of Tour Amour

iona Flynn is an international music

sensation. Her famous Tour Amour goes

from New York to exotic places like

Morocco and Kenya. As said by Fiona,

“There is a lot more to touring than just

putting your finger on a map and saying

‘let’s go there’! Studying culture and the

hierarchical dispersion of culture has to do

with a lot of it.” Fiona holds a valued point

in saying that the study of culture and its

dispersion is a key to success when touring.

Although not all of Fiona’s tours went as

planned, she dealt with tough issues with

fortitude. You wouldn’t want to tour

somewhere that they’ve never heard of you,

would you?

Geographers are always looking for

connections between what is happening

and why. This can be thought of as a field

of inquiry. The questions are limitless; and

the more answers that are found, the more

interconnected everything seems. Tour

groups often use geographical findings to

advance their opportunities. Concepts that

geographers have come across include

hierarchical diffusion, distance decay, and

cultural landscape. Hierarchical dispersion

is a form of diffusion in which an idea or

innovation spreads by passing first among

the most connected places or peoples. You

can see how studying this can help

organize a tour. A tour like Tour Amour

could very much go through the process of

hierarchical dispersion, starting in the

more populous hearth-like cities. Trends

move from hearths to places they go well

noticed and heard of. In the case of pop

music, the “hierarchy” is teenagers. In

today’s society, teenagers play a crucial role

in what’s popular and what’s not. Teens

have very pliable, indecisive minds which

contribute to the rapidly changing fads.

One day, listening to classical rock may be

in the norm. The next day, listening to

classical rock might be preposterous!

Fiona Flynn’s style of music is

considered a “pop” genre; for it to be

successful, tour locations must be central

hearths. Fiona is pop culture, and little local

culture areas are probably not going to

know as much about her as the hearth-like

areas are. Distance decay is another factor

Fiona says affects her tour. “The more away

from hearths places are, the less they are

affected by popular culture they are. That

puts limitations on places where we can

tour.” Common locations for music tours in

the “pop” genre include New York, Atlanta,

and London. Record companies do more

elaborate studies on how to produce “the

next big thing”. A common way musicians

like Fiona gain popularity is by performing

on channels such as MTV. Geographer

Clayton Rosati did such a study to

F

The Making of Tour Amour emphasize the role of MTV on popular

culture. Rosati’s results showed that

“MTV’s incorporation of rap music and Hip

Hop expressive forms into its production in

1997 helped produce music celebrities”.

(De Blij, 2007, pg. 113)

The pull between globalized popular

culture and local culture can be seen in the

cultural landscape which is another factor

or strategy that is used. Fiona likes to think

of herself as bringing people together, and

looking at the cultural landscape can

ensure a successful tour. However, not all

people are open to this assimilation. Others

view homogeneity between all countries

and various ethnicities as a threat. Local

cultures often credit their music as a

distinctive characteristic that is a part of

their customs. When international

influences breeze into local cultures, new

eras begin. According to geographer

Edward Relph, “Placelessness is a word to

describe the loss of uniqueness of place in

the cultural landscape so that one place

looks like the next.” (De Blij, 2007, pg.

117) This example relates to not just

physical landscape, but to cultural interests

as well.

As noted in Human Geography

People, Place, and Culture (page 11) “The

five themes of geography are location,

human-environment interactions, region,

place, and movement.” These themes are

the exact points that make up Tour Amour,

and what make it an international

accomplishment. The location of where the

concerts are placed is vital, and the way

people interact with the concerts (EX:

buying tickets or not going) is

indispensable for the tour. Region comes

into play since there is no way Tour Amour

can go places that are not in the “pop-

culture” region, thus they must stay there.

Fiona mentions that while studying the

different regions, she had to pay attention

to perceptual regions, such as the

generalized area considered the “South” of

North America. On a smaller scale, Fiona

looked at functional regions such as Atlanta

and its suburbs. All the places on the earth

are unique and bring certain likings and

values to the tour. Finally, movement is the

third “theme”. How is she supposed to have

a concert when no one can come to it?

When all these factors come together, it

becomes obvious why certain musicians

gain more popularity than others.

Musicians truly must plan out their

steps on how to get to where they need to

be. However, not all musicians follow the

same path Fiona did; some gain popularity

through the Internet.

The last things that make up her

tour strategy are GPS, maps, and GIS. These

things all either tell Fiona and her crew

where they’re going, or show them how to

The Making of Tour Amour get there. Geographical Information

Systems layers the information unlike the

others but they all have the same goal.

Mapping out data keeps the team

organized. The complete Tour Amour map

comes together to show the associations of

place and diffusion. Using these new

technological advances, Fiona’s team can

put together pinpoints and facts about how

to travel. Without GIS, the team would not

know which areas in Ireland are most

populated, and differentiate between the

places in Ireland in which the population is

mostly youth.

On the next few pages, there are maps

of Fiona Flynn’s Tour Amour locations.

Comparing them to population dot maps,

there is a clear correlation between youth

population and event venues. Fiona’s team

gathered information from census data to

determine population sizes. Every single

detail of Fiona’s tour was though out on

different scales. First, the team chose out

the most populated countries. Then, Fiona

personally studied each country to find the

most populated region. Within the region,

further studies were made to find the

demographics of the densest populations.

Tour Amour has multifarious

subjects that make it pop, but somehow

they all harmonize to bring us the complex

musical beauty that is tour Amour.

Originally written by Sonny Knowles