So I am assuming grunge has its roots in Seattle. I’ve heard Tampa FL is the death metal capital of the US. Nashville is home of country. LA is probably home of hair metal bands. London (and maybe NYC) is home of punk.
So where does all this come from where one city is considered the capital of a certain music type? Is it just because one or two groundbreaking bands starts from/relocates to these cities and other bands follow, which causes other bands, fans and record companies relocating to the area creating a snowball effect? Is Seattle the home of grunge because Nirvana started there, because the culture is in tune with the message of grunge, because bands relocated there for the previous 2 reasons or something else?
What about other music genres (jazz, r&b, rock, folk, etc). Does folk rock (Chapin, Stevens, Donovan) have a capital or home city?
Are most music capital cities in the US or are there a lot of international music cities?
I’m not sure every genre has a “capital,” but maybe a concentration. You’re right that similar musicians group together (birds of a feather) because they feed off of and enjoy each other’s styles.
I’d say jazz originated from the South, New Orleans in particular. Both rock and R&B are black-based, so also had a southern source. With Elvis, it expanded into the white world and moved north and west.
I can’t think of any concentration of folk other than where Woody Guthrie went, there it was. Folk by its very nature is among the people, scattered.
Then with the recording era, musicians often gathered where the studios were; that’s where the work was. Studios begat night clubs, and vice versa. West Coast had movie studios, New York had audio, then TV studios, at least at first. It’s a little like car dealers – if you have a Ford, Chevy and Mercedes dealership on a strip, you’re likely to get a VW dealer soon to join next.
Here’s a link to four lists (arranged alphabetically) of musical genres. You have to click on each of the alphabetical sections to see the lists. The entries talk about the genres and (where appropriate) the place they originated:
It’s astonishing how many genres there are which aren’t well known outside of a particular area. Do you know what Go-go is? It’s pretty much confined to Washington, D.C. and its suburbs. It’s vaguely like funk, hip-hop, and rhythm and blues:
Bakersfield CA was a big progressive Country scene in the early 60’s. Called the Bakersfield sound. Merle Haggard and Buck Owens are two of the better known. Bakersfield influenced modern Country for the next few decades. It was the start of including electric guitars in a country band.
Mersey Beat & Canterbury Scene. Muscle Shoals & Motown were two very different kinds of Soul Music in the Sixties. A lot of music came out of Athens, Georgia in the early Eighties, most famously B52s and REM. But it covered several genres so there wasn’t any name for that scene.
Kansas City grew a specific kind of jazz scene.
Not sure how much penetration it had in the USA, but here in the UK there was Madchester from, umm, Manchester which was a genre (or sub-genre really) of psychedelic rock / dance. Most notable bands on the Madchester scene being The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, New Order and my favourite; The Fall.
Swamp Pop seems to have originated in New Orleans possible because it all seems to derive from Fats Domino.
Folk music may not be connected historically to any one area but it certainly would never have thrived as it did without all of the clubs in and around New York City and Greenwich Village. NYC was also the home of Vanguard Records which had folk performers from the 30’s to the 60’s as a staple in their catalogue. John Hammond who travelled the U.S and more to do his library of Congress recordings was also located in NYC and very important to Vanguard as well.
I’d say New Order and The Fall don’t really belong in the Madchester (AKA Baggy) basket even if Wikipedia thinks so. They predate it by too much and anyway have a different sound, IMO. Other bands like Inspiral Carpets or James do. Even the Charlatans, but they’re not Mancunian IIRC, and they blend nicely into the later Britpop of Blur, Oasis etc.
Sometimes it’s just a small area that has a noticeable population of bands, likely because of the live venues there e.g the Camden/Shoegazer genre AKA The Scene That Celebrates Itself.
Yeah, I’d certainly agree with you on The Fall, they’re pretty much a genre on their own (well I say “they”, I pretty much consider Mark E Smith to be The Fall), and the others you mention are probably guilty by association rather than a “true” part of Madchester. I think New Order do just about squeeze in there though, and The Charlatans definitely do although you’re right, they’re not actually Mancunian… close enough though. Once you get past the Watford Gap it’s all “The Norf” to me anyway
The Blues started in “The Delta” Mississippi. Chicago is the home of the electric blues.
Southern California is home to both surf and country rock I believe.
San Francisco was considered the center of psychedelic music in the 60s and 70s. Los Angeles was the center of “corporate rock” – a derisory term for songs that were cranked out solely to be hits.
I’ll editorialize a little and add that Baltimore club is some really ridiculous, annoying, shoddy sounding stuff. It can be pretty fun. But geez even for techno it’s samey!
There have been quite a few cities associated with classical music, but if I had to pick one, it would be Vienna. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms lived there, along with all the Strausses, Lehar, Schönberg and many lesser composers. In fact, most of their graves are in a tiny area within the city’s main cemetery.
Definitely NY, if only for CBGB(OMFUG) and to maybe a slightly lesser extantThe Mudd Club. I’m sure lots of smaller venues in the city and 'cross the river in Hoboken too.
