Situated at the interface of memory studies and film studies, my research looks at the ways mediated transcultural memories travel through different, often conflicting discursive contexts. How does cultural memory tie in with processes of gentrification? My paper argues that mediated regional and transcultural memories are mobilized by different – and often conflicting – stakeholders, for instance the heritage industries, official politics of city branding or antigentrification struggles. Drawing on my case study of Manchester‘s contemporary politics of city branding, I will outline modes of appropriating cultural memory in times of urban reconstruction. My paper will look at the power relations involved in adapting (white homosocial) postpunk memories into the self- fashioning of Manchester as a creative city. I argue that subcultural or popular memories are not emancipatory per se, but can easily tie into neoliberal politics. This has been possible, among others, because Manchester’s postpunk memory culture has excluded feminist and queer positions as well as the recollections of Black and Asian Britons. In short, while travelling through various transmedia contexts, Manchester's postpunk memories have been streamlined memories in favour of consent instead of celebrating difference.