Carrie Brownstein over at NPR’s Monitor Mix:
Great music transcends the spot on the map from which it springs
forth. But music also captures the nuances and sensibilities of
people’s lives in a specific place or even becomes a reflection of the
city or State itself. Our local bands might be the best example of who
we are right now or of who we want to become, or maybe not at all. They
might live in Portland and sound like they’re from Manchester. So, it’s
not just the bands who reside in our cities and towns, or who
transplant themselves there, that make up the noises that represent our
topography or our internal and external landscapes.
Brownstein asks: What musical sounds, what bands, what songs, exemplify the places you inhabit? What say you?
December 20th, 2007 at 9:08 am
My adopted hometown is Nashville, TN. To the world we are largely defined by our very successful brand image, commercial country. Our honky-tonk bars help form our unique feel. However, those of us that live here enjoy a wide range of music offerings. My observation has been that lots of Nashvillians, including the hordes of music business insiders, gravitate toward a more polished, casual, singer-songwriter sound than the commercial country for which we are known. That said, there seems to be a lot of cross-genre appreciation of talent.
December 20th, 2007 at 10:45 am
CHICAGO Blues…..
December 20th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
DC – Our music project documents just what you say, Nashville’s evolution as a wide ranging center for musical artists and business – a Silicon Valley like environment, but with music at its core.
DJM – Our project also and unfortunately documents the demise of the historic crossroads music scenes – Chicago perhaps less so than others, but its musical trajectory is like that of New Orleans, Memphis and Detroit.
On the plus side, we also see a third trend – the rise if independent scenes in a wide range of places – college towns, creative class cities, even smaller less urban places.
My next Globe and Mail column, two Saturdays from now, will cover some of this, so stay tuned. We are also conducting pretty detailed research with Scott Jackson, Charlotta Mellander, and Kevin Stolarick. More to come.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
DC,
Your post reminds me of one of my favorite bands – Kings of Leon. They rattled around the Bible Belt for most of their upbringing before settling in Nashville to record. When they were signed by RCA, they began working with Angelo Petraglia a famed commercial country country producer. By his account he influenced their sound by turning them on to the Rolling Stones and other ROCK bands.
http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/events/state/documents/03100506.asp
Must have worked , since they are today one of the most eclectic garage bands and a great testament to the city’s diversity. Their “Because of the Times” album has to be one of the year’s best.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I had a similar thought last night when I was making a mental list of musical artists and the cities (or neighborhoods) from which they hail. My conclusion: it’s much easier for me to link hip-hop artists with their places than it is for artists from other genres. And I don’t listen to much hip-hop.