Translocal music worlds are often defined as networks of local music worlds. However, their networked character and more especially their network structure is generally assumed rather than concretely mapped and explored. Formal social network analysis (SNA) is beginning to attract interest in music sociology but it has not previously been used to explore a translocal music world. In this paper, drawing upon a survey of the participation of 474 enthusiasts in 148 live music events, spread across 6 localities, we use SNA to explore a significant "slice" of the network structure of the U.K.'s translocal underground heavy metal world. Translocality is generated in a number of ways, we suggest, but one way, the way we focus upon, involves audiences traveling between localities to attend gigs and festivals. Our analysis of this network uncovers a core-periphery structure which, we further find, maps onto locality. Not all live events enjoy equal standing in our music world and some localities are better placed to capture more prestigious events, encouraging inward travel. The identification of such structures, and the inequality they point to, is, we believe, one of several benefits of using SNA to analyze translocal music worlds.

There has been a growing recognition of the potential utility of social network analysis for the analysis of culture and more especially ‘music worlds’ in recent years. To date, however, studies have focused upon individual music worlds, defined by reference to either style or geography. In this article, we further develop this methodological innovation by using blockmodelling techniques to explore the coexistence of different music worlds within a common ‘musical universe’ and the pattern of connection between them. Specifically, we blockmodel a network of 106 UK music festivals, representing a variety of different music worlds and surveyed between 2011 and 2013. In addition to substantive findings, the article demonstrates that blockmodelling can be an effective way of identifying distinct ‘worlds’ within a wider network and of exploring the ‘universe’ constituted by the connections between those worlds.