The shift toward the ‘museumification’ of popular music is evidenced by blockbuster shows at leading international art and design museums alongside the establishment of music museums, Halls of Fame and exhibition centres around the world from Australia and Denmark to the UK and the US. The inclusion of music within a gallery context raises both practical questions about how best to deliver and manage sound within the gallery space, as well as questions of interpretation about how visitors will encounter the music, how they are encouraged to listen, and how it contributes to a multi-sensory experience. Drawing on case study museums and exhibitions I will discuss curatorial approaches to presenting music in the gallery and the opportunities opened up for sensory engagement. I will then examine visitor responses to explore how exhibition content is processed and interpreted by individuals.The paper will consider the different modes of engagement enabled through museum technologies while emphasising the importance of listening to visitor perspectives to more fully understand how music is given value within the museum encounter.
