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Really St. Louis slighted again?! What about Scott Joplin, all the Jazz and Blues stars, the father of Rock n Roll Chuck Barry, plus one of the best selling hip-hop performers of all time Nelly? We definitely deserved at least an honorable mention! 😢
This list calls itself global but is so Anglophone-centered. And as always, cities from the global south are invisibilized here. The metrics chosen are bad and centered in American style music "industry"
The continued dominance of the NYC jazz scene is astounding. No other style of music evokes the feeling of living in a major urban environment quite like jazz.
Something I always find depressing as a Portland resident is how we used to have one of the strongest jazz scenes on the west coast, until we essentially eminent domain-ed it out of existence to build Memorial Colosseum and I-5. Now, the scene is barely hanging on at a handful of venues trying to make it work.
I mean by default I’d say Portland still has one of the strongest jazz scenes on the west coast, because few cities have anything resembling a “jazz scene” at all
I really hope you do the logistics of music festivals! It's wild being from Chicago and hearing that people are in traffic for over 6 hours leaving Coachella when I go to Lollapalooza here with 450k+ attendees and am home within 15 minutes via the trains.
Something that you didn't outright say but is implied is how affordable a city is. Death Cab for Cutie is one of my favorite bands; and in the bands early days they shared a house just outside of Seattle in Bellingham(where they would record and rehearse their early music). I highlight this since Seattle home prices have priced many that could be musicians/artists from establishing social networks that'll help them grow and have a safe space to create their art.
This is a very important point since unestablished musicians can be very poor forcing those that want to live in a city to take a day job and maybe never fulfill their dreams because they're just so busy making ends meet.
@@matthewmoore7447you beat me to it lol. “Just outside Seattle” is more like Tukwila, Renton, Shoreline, etc…Bellingham is basically a Vancouver BC suburb 😂
@@matthewmoore7447i mean, vancouver bc is still another hour and a half north of bellingham, more depending on the border crossing. as a local, i'd definitely consider death cab more of a bellingham band. and bellingham is not really a suburb of anything unless you count BC folks coming down to shop at the mall. it was kind of an insular college town when i was there
It's a bit ironic that you call Ray "CN" because that is the ISO code for China, a country he almost completely ignores, a big oversight when it comes to Urbanism give the facts. Like a lot of Americans,, he seems to be somewhat Sinophobic - something he would probably reflexively deny - but he is missing a lot living in that shell. RM does a better job venturing into Asia as a topic, o his credit.
@@unreliablenarrator6649 If you watch his videos, he relies heavily upon government and commercial data to perform his analysis. This data is widely available and reliable for the USA, less so for China. If the Chinese government would publish trustworthy data then that would allow him to apply his analysis methods to that nation as well. Instead, the CCP is more interested in investigating and harassing Western commercial intelligence operators so that they can control the narrative for themselves.
Saying Loveless is the greatest album of all time is not something I expected when I clicked on this video, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Mr. Nerd continues to prove himself the most distinguished urban elite.
As a member of the early 90s American shoegaze contingent, I am certainly a huge fan of MBV, and I do think Loveless is one of the most seminal albums of the era, but I would hesitate to call it "the greatest album of all time". One of, yes. The? Eehhh....probably not, as Ray might say. Music is just too subjective to use those kinds of terms. OTOH, Ray also mentioned Oxford without mentioning Ride, so there's that.
Detroit not only gave rise to blues, RnB, and Motown, but also techno (Carl Craig) and early punk (band called Death). Sadly we also gave rise to Kid Rock but nonetheless, the city as a hub of music culture is super underrated.
I just can't believe how low Detroit was on this list, when I saw this topic I thought of Motown (and maybe Seattle). I didn't think of Houston or Minneapolis-St Paul, even if Prince is from there or nearby. Some of these cities also seemed to appropriate artists that made their names there but weren't from there originally (or were from not too far away), others only got on the list because a very famous artist is from there but moved to make it big in NYC or LA, it's a hotch potch of a list this one.
Pretty shocked that Manchester didn't crack the top-10 with bands like 10cc, The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Happy Mondays, Buzzcocks, Inspiral Carpet, the Bee Gees, The Verve, Courteeners, The 1975. It was also the home to one of the world's greatest rave scenes in the 80s and 90s with Madchester and the Hacienda. I feel like your methodology is biased towards cities that have produced one big artist without larger scenes: such as Liverpool, Houston and Minneapolis/St Paul, and is missing out on cities that have a real undercurrent of music in all parts of life, such as in Manchester or New Orleans. You feel music in your bones in Manchester when you walk the streets in a way you simply don't in Houston.
@@kjh23gk I don't think so? I think the American urbanist community are great and they've really injected a lot of energy into the movement in recent years. Regardless, I don't really see how anyone could really make a coherent argument for Houston being a bigger music city than Manchester beyond overweighting Beyonce in the equation from a sheer charts perspective.
Birmingham, England is VASTLY underrated too (as always…). The home of Heavy Metal and Bhangra as well as producing acts like ELO, UB40, Black Sabbath, The Streets and Duran Duran amongst others. Then there is Gary, Indiana which is the REAL home of The Jacksons including megastar Michael and superstar Janet.
@@TheWhiteSpaceUK Absolutely, it would be on my personal top-10 list. Obviously not quite as big as Manchester or London but I think it has a lot more depth than Liverpool, Minneapolis or Houston for example.
Criminal to miss Manchester, but Liverpool is a good shout, OMD, Elvis Costello, FGTH, Teardrop Explodes, The La's, and some four piece combo that made it big in America.
Our local NPR station had a segment last week on how Austin came up with the "Live Music Capital of the World" moniker. Spoiler, it happened probably exactly like you imagine with a boring council resolution. 😅
Although Bob Dylan is from northern Minnesota, he really got his start and found his sound in Minneapolis. Many of his most famous songs chronicle his younger years in Minneapolis -- 'Positively 4th Street' and 'All Along the Watchtower' (which was about the Prospect Park Witch Hat tower) and many others. There used to a Bob Dylan tour in Minneapolis that showed where he lived, the clubs he played at in the West Bank and Dinkytown, and so on. Some of the groups he played with in the early 60's such as Koerner, Ray and Glover and Willie Murphy were still performing locally as late as a decade ago.
Actually, in addition to Atlanta, Athens GA punches pretty high up. The B-52s, REM, Danger Mouse, Love Tractor, and the Drive by Truckers all come from Athens (and UGA which is also in Athens). They even have their own Music Walk of Fame
Thank you for this one, honestly, music and art influence should be considered when giving points to a city, rather than only caring about having a good amount of bike lanes and bus times.
Yeah this video was partly meant as an antidote to the kida same ol same ol urbanist discourse. I really think we need to spend some time thinking and talking about all the different things that are important about cities. I think it's important politically, since so much funding and policy stuff that impacts cities comes at the federal or state level. You should have to live in a city to appreciate how important and influential they are.
It’s worth noting that Detroit is the birthplace of techno and electronic music. This fact has been largely overlooked by the US mainstream media; however, Detroit techno inspired much of the world’s techno DJs and shaped the sound of clubs worldwide. If you’re into techno, check out the Movement Music Festival held on Memorial Day weekend each year in Detroit. It has quite the international following.
@gcvrsa Chicago was the birthplace of house, Detroit of techno music, as chronicled in nearly every history written of the genres. Detroit techno was pioneered by the "bellville 3" juan atkins, derrick may and kevin saunderson, who combined their influences (Kraftwerk and Parlament Funkadelic) into a new sound using drum machines and synthesizers: techno. America was not very receptive to house or techno but European dance scenes loved sound, giving rise to the first rave culture in the UK.
It's not too surprising to me. He's a slightly older guy from Seattle with thick framed glasses. If he was into Bay Area hip hop passionately, that'd be way more surprising
One major correction that needs to be made here is that Bruce Springsteen is by no means a NYC act. Springsteen is a New Jersey act, based in the Asbury Park, NJ beach town scene.
Regarding Minneapolis, you forgot one of the most iconic figures in American music (and one of my favorites), Bob Dylan. Minneapolis played a critical role in the early stages of Bob Dylan's career. He got his start in Minneapolis and the city had a lot influence on his career. For starters, he changed his name from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan while in Minneapolis. At the time Dylan was living there, the city had a vibrant and diverse music scene, which is exposed Dylan to a wide range of musical styles, including folk. Minneapolis had a large network of musicians that provided Dylan with an environment rich in mentorship and camaraderie among musicians. The city also served as a backdrop for Dylan's early experimentation with songwriting and performance style.
New Orleans being an honorable mention while Houston and Seattle being on this list is crazy. New Orleans invented Jazz and Lil Wayne is another incredibly influential artist the last 25 years.
Seattle totally deserves to be on this list, grunge literally started there and was a dominant genre in the 90s. Still has a huge music scene with great shows and bands too..
Agreed New Orleans and the broader Mississippi delta area is the birthplace of jazz and Louis Armstrong, as well as one of the breeding grounds of blues music with Robert Johnson being the most influential guitarist to ever live. All of the great guitarists from the 60s such as Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix wouldn’t exist without the legend and the music of Robert Johnson.
New Orleans should be number one on this list, the development of early jazz in New Orleans lead to the creation of every popular genre we listen to today some way.
New York deserves the number 1. Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, it having a ton of record labels, CBGB, Studio 54, Carol King, and many influential songwriters and musicians. New Orleans should be in the Top 10 though.
Today with the internet, music tastes are so diffuse now that you really don't see 1 genre of music dominate 1 city anymore. People can bypass big recording studios and record out of their homes now, and it is quite a beautiful thing, the Democratization of music. Today some kid in rural Kansas can release an album or a single, and upload it to SoundCloud. You don't need access to a big studio anymore, which I think is a great thing
Kids get big on TikTok and get signed by major labels, gone are the days of a&r guys traveling the country looking for new acts. This brings with it a new set of issues, specifically the normification of music
I live in Nashville and used to play with a country singer from Kentucky. He lived here but booked most of his shows in Kentucky, just three hours north. He did that because being a "Nashville singer" made the folks back home think he was bigger than he really was. There's a certain prestige that comes with living here. So I get Ray's point about Nashville and Austin but if you want to be a working musician, as opposed to a "star," both are great cities to live in. Certainly living at the intersection of three Interstates helps with touring, and I hope Ray looks at the infrastructure aspect of music towns in a future video.
@@freshuniversegamingI'm all about walkablility, but a grocery store takes precedence over restaurants IMO. I truly enjoy cooking for myself. Sometimes I question what urbanism really means to people who are fans of it, I think a lot of them are really seeking out "entertainment districts" over amenities that are just as important to people who can't afford or prefer not to dine out constantly.
Still don’t understand how New Orleans is only an honorable mention. As for Philly- we foster a lot of homegrown but once they start making a bigger impression beyond the city, they almost always pick up and move to NYC.
So happy to see you include Minneapolis. The city also produced Bob Dylan, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Mint Condition, and as of most recent Lizzo. Big s/o to Chicago and Detroit, the Midwest as a whole is unappreciated for how it has pushed American music forward.
Honorable mentions for the Iron Range and Rochester for Bob Dylan and Yung Gravy. The sheer amount of talent from Minnesota is crazy, and that's coming from a fellow Minnesotan musician knowing that's some big shoes to fill. Edit; gotta shout out Gaelynn Lee. Phenomenal musician.
Some people misunderstand that Austin and Nashville are known for LIVE music. Not a place where famous acts come from, but places where you can go see live music any day of the year with ease
Just a quick shout to DC. One of the four most important jazz cities in the early- to mid-1900s, along with New Orleans, Chicago, and NY. Birthplace and career starter for Duke Ellington, maybe the greatest jazzist of his era. Solid rock scene--the Mamas and Papas started in the area. Also the national center for punk music, especially hardcore punk, through the 70s and 80s. And a starting ground for tons of indie bands and artists from the 70s through 90s, including Dave Grohl. Strong hip hop scene, too, though not at the level of others on the list
Was sort of expecting Seoul to show up here if only for the sheer popularity of kpop these days. It's so true that music is crucial to a city's appeal. I could never leave Montreal even in favor of some urbanist paradise in Europe or Japan or whatever because I'd be too depressed without the local punk and hardcore scene. It is simply unmatched. (Huge shout out to the NYC and Toronto scenes though)
Yeah I said that too but Seoul is missing here, though it's similar to the way Nashville is I'm not sure how many artists actually come from Seoul itself. But as far as worldwide popularity and recognition, It certainly has taken off in the last two decades worldwide.
I think the problem here is the data source - the Rolling Stones top 500 list does not include to my knowledge a single Asian album. While I will allow that a lot of Asian pop music isn’t especially innovative, there have undoubtedly been great and influential albums that merit recognition. Also ones in recent years that have been the top selling albums worldwide.
I was trying to think how he could have gone more international. Seoul definitely makes sense, I would say Mumbai as well with how big Bollywood is, and it’s very tight integration of music with cinema. I would probably include a city from Brazil too, huge music scene there. These are hard boundaries to cross with language barriers though, so I get the default to English speaking cities. Just thought a more diverse representation would be more accurate if we’re thinking global influence!
@@tylermarshall46 So true for Mumbai. While we're at it Kingston, Jamaica is definitely worth mentioning too- they gave us reggae, dub, dancehall, rocksteady and of course ska 🏁
Music is too broad and varied to do a "top ten in the entire world" list. The only non-US cities on the list were all in the UK. Ray should've just kept the list to only the US, or the US and UK.
Fun video! Seeing New Orleans as just an honorable mention stung! With your metrics of popular artists I can understand, but with music being the fabric of our city and therefore our urban life, I assumed we would be in the top three. Any day or night of any day of the year, you’re probably walking distance from a show. Or maybe we’re just a drinking city with a music problem. Oh well! I’m always wondering when New Orleans will pop up on your videos for something positive lol
Chicago obviously always been influential but i gotta shout out how incredible live music is here too. Too many fantastic venues to count, festivals of all sizes from the free neighborhood summer fests to riot fest to lolla, every nationwide tour stops here, and there's a ton of sick local bands as well. From March to October I'm gonna see at least two or three shows a month
I was flabbergasted for a moment when you started dropping all the 90's bands I like. The list was very nice as well, only thing missing imo was a mention of Berlin in the honourable mentions.
So, Seattle native, my daughter also went to Washington Middle School, as did you and Jimi. Unlike Jimi and you, she did not go on to Garfield, but to Nova instead. At Washington, she learned something in the lore of students there. Why Jimi was expelled from Garfield. I won’t mention it, but it is pretty funny, and had to do with use of a certain instrument. Testing to see if you might know. Interesting to see Seattle turn up #7, a lot because of Nirvana. To be noted is that Kurt named another city in your history as where they invented grunge in the early 80s. That’s Portland, where Greg Sage and Wipers led the scene. Kurt called Greg “the godfather of grunge.” Kurt also hung around at Club Satyricon, where I saw many shows in the 80s and 90s and I believe was still around in your early Portland years.
I loved this video. Another great one. I get why Philadelphia didn't make the cut against these powerhouse cities, but in addition to Billie Holiday (as you mentioned) it produced Hall & Oates, The Roots, Patti La Belle, the O'Jays, Joan Jett, Erykah Badu, Boyz II Men, Will Smith and more. Basically a whole genre was named for the city, Philadelphia Soul or the Philadelphia Sound, which is not something you can say about too many other places. So not as many chart toppers as other cities, but Philly definitely punches above its weight, given the magnetic pull of New York City, as you said.
other notable artists repping toronto/GTA: the weeknd (massive commercial and critical success), deadmau5 (the biggest EDM act in his days), shawn mendez, alessia cara... importantly thou, numerous bands from the 2000s in the rock scene: alexisonfire, billy talent, sum41, avril lavigne, metric, silverstein, broken social scene, three days grace, our lady peace, tokyo police club, barenaked ladies, arkelles, finger eleven, the list goes on ...while you can say some of these artists are 'southern ontario' rather than GTA, they were a big part of the toronto live music scene and earned their chops during that time. also, we take some credit for alanis morissette, since she recorded her first album in toronto. also maaaaybeee...justin bieber gets a quarter-credit :P
Crazy that Toronto didnt make the list. R&B has been going crazy in TO since the early 2000s and even prior. Just shows that local music is always more popular locally i guess
Not to mention Jay Park, who debuted with the K-pop group 2PM but branched out into a far more lucrative and influential solo career as one of the progenitors of K-hiphop.
oh i loved seeing this video show up in my inbox. music really is a cultural gel that can influence urbanism, and in some cases the music itself can paint that urbanism with imagery. like how in the 1990s, new york hip hop was gritty and cold like brooklyn winter streets while cali hip hop was vibrant melodic g-funk in the sun
I don't know I would have put San Francisco towards the top of the list. The San Francisco sound was really huge back in the 60's and 70's. Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, just to name a few. Also Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham met in the San Francisco area and heavily influenced by all the music coming out of the Bay Area.
No mention of Kingston, Jamaica? So many influential Reggae acts that are popular from the Netherlands, to Brazil, to Japan, to the U.S. and Kingston artists influenced the development of hip-hop (DJ Kool Herc, godfather of hip-hop) Ska, and electronic music. Dancehall is another genre from Kingston that is very popular in New York, London and around the world, and influenced dubstep and other worldwide genres. Idk exactly how you did your math, but I think it could've deserved an honorable mention, esp considering New York and London we're you're top 1 and 2. Modern pop music would be nothing without Jamacian party culture
If you're relying on Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, you're mostly going to have albums, which underrepresents singles and 12-inches, which is going to put reggae, dubstep, dancehall etc. at a disadvantage.
Local live music venues (especially the small venues that unknown artists start out in) and urban intensification are often at odds with each other. It usually goes something like this: 1. There is a small venue in the outskirts of town 2. Intensification spreads and medium density housing is set up in the area 3. The residents complain 4. The venue is forced to compromise or shut down and then a city only has large venues for established artists left. How do cities navigate this problem?
Ridiculous idea. Arenas aren't the only venues. Cities have far higher densities of bars, community centers, coffee shops, etc. than suburbs ever could
Great video, but I take issue with your clam that Toronto doesn't have enough! Similar to NYC, LA, or London it's the focus of the music industry for an entire country and is extremely varied. Some of the more recognizable names who got their careers off the ground or eventually relocated to Toronto are Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, The Band, Steppenwolf, RUSH, Triumph, Saga, Klaatu, Max Webster, Martha & The Muffins, ANVIL, Platinum Blonde, Glass Tiger, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, Death From Above, Sloan, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Sum 41, Drake, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara, Feist, Deadmau5, Crystal Castles, PUP, Alvvays, The Beaches, Billy Talent, The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Peaches, Nelly Furtado, Tokyo Police Club and many more that are only well known in Canada.
The methodology reflects popular consensus in US culture and I think it's misleading that the list is represented as reflecting something about global music importance, because it's perfectly valid to discuss American culture.
Thing is, every Canadian musician that gets some notoriety eventually relocates to Toronto, so the chances that each of those artists getting full points for Toronto is low.
Thank you for mentioning 'X' on your Los Angeles bands...when a track on a playlist comes on that stops me enough to check "who's that?" it's usually 'X'
I’m so glad that Austin wasn’t on this list. As a musician who lived and worked in the city for years, I can confirm, the music scene down there is a total wasteland of mediocre blues musicians and google tech bros who play guitar in their spare time as their bands open for prog rock puppet shows.
Let's face it, Austin is really only famous because of a few Texas blues acts and hosting SxSW, which itself has almost nothing to do with music anymore.
Here in Northern California every time I hear Austin gets hyped up its usually Venture Capitalists and Investors from San Jose and San Francisco hyping their investments there via land deals or building new office complexes there. I remember hearing that San Francisco,San Jose and Austin at one point had a good arts scene but that is killed off due to how investment groups dominate those areas via gentrification.
My personal honorable mention, Bristol UK, the birthplace of one of my fav music genres, trip hop. The city gave us Massive Attack, Portishead, Roni Size, Idles, Strangelove among others.
New Orleans music scene is big, but strangely it's quite rare for a local NOLA act to break out into the big mainstream. Like there are so many genres of music that literally nobody outside of New Orleans has ever heard of like Bounce.
@@swagmundfreud666 But the criteria is 'top music cities'. Music is ubiquitous in New Orleans to a greater degree than any American city. Plus I don't really agree, Louis Armstrong was the original popular music figure setting the standard for all others and influencing all popular music to this day
Fun Jacksonville fact- the Quad City DJs, known for C'mon and Ride It (The Train) and Space Jam got their start in Jacksonville. A surprisingly diverse mix of southern rock, country, hip hop, and jazz (James Weldon Johnson!) and punches well above its weight there
CityNerd being a Swervedriver fan is something I definitely needed to know! This video may not get the same big views as his other vids, but it will influence thousands of bands and urbanist TH-cam channels to form in its wake.
Eminem, Royce Da 5' 9", Kash Doll, The White Stripes, and Big Sean are some of the biggest names from detroit this millennium. I am VERY surprised Detroit isn't top 5. MoTown is named after Detroit, The Motor City. I think it's one of the only genre's that got national/international acclaim that's named after the city it began in. It's not NY or LA, but it is huge for music history, and has been culturally central for R&B and Rap/Hip-Hop. We also have huge festivals and some of the nicest theaters you'll find anywhere. The Fox Theater, The Fillmore, and many others are fantastic venues, and we have huge festivals like Electric Forest. Kid Rock is from the detroit area, too. But I don't like to claim him.
10:21 It breaks my heart to see Jacksonville given credit for the Allman Brothers. Macon, GA (like Little Richard and Otis Redding) is where they planted their roots.
I love the glimpse into your wide span of musical preferences and opinions, furthering my own opinion that I could probably listen to you talk about damn near anything
Two thoughts (apologies if I’m not the first to make either point) 1) Maybe sometimes saying “by the way, New York is expensive” can feel a bit de rigueur or whatever… but to discuss all the great music that town has produced (mostly when it was a lot less unaffordable) without lamenting how prohibitively expensive and for that reason hostile the place is to creative people, hit my palette in kind of a funny way. 2) To my knowledge this is the first foray on the channel outside of North America, and I feel like it’s a great case-in-point for staying in this hemisphere. I know there were attempts at making music a metric-friendly quantity, and that’s fine… but like… there’s a whole world out there outside of the US and UK, and a lot of music beloved by millions, and of genres that aren’t popular (or maybe even known) among the industry kingmakers behind the billboard charts or pitchfork or whatever. It just feels like there’s now worms crawling all over the floor, because you opened a can, and that can could’ve stayed closed by limiting geographic scope as has always been the case. I hate worms, man.
Should have been higher (and I say this as someone not even from the US). When I think of US music cities I think of Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and Nashville. The biggest cities will obviously have more stars and big name bands, and I'm not sure enough research and into this as Houston should definitely not be on the list (and showing of Houston's, Whitney Houston was from NJ not NY).
Seattle and Portland were both so important to the grunge scene. Something about the dark grey skies fits the music way too well. The bay area definitely should be in this list though. It produced so much metal, especially on the thrash side. Metallica and megadeth being the two most notable examples. Hell, it's literally called bay area thrash metal for a reason.
@@sterlingmarshel6299 Except, no. Portland was insanely important to the grunge scene around the same time. It also had an active punk scene. Do some basic google searches, man. Even kobain talked about this. Portland was wild in the 90's.
If you are into jazz the SFJazz Center is a win. It is the largest non-profit jazz presenter in the world. Just about every act in the business plays there and they have classes, not just for music, but for mixing/recording too. They also keep the tradition alive in the local schools.
Philly not being on this list is my Joker moment. The Roots, Boyz II Men, Hall & Oates, War on Drugs, The Menzingers, Circa Survive, Modern Baseball, Dr Dog. Punches so far above its weight
Not only those artists, but all of these are from the Philly area as well: Jim Croce, P!nk, Eve, Pattie Labele, The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Meek Mill, Lil Uzi Vert, Diplo, Marshmello, Joan Jett and Taylor Swift (Reading, but if NY claims Bruce we can claim Taylor)
A solid list and interesting subject to explore. I would add St. Louis to the list, or replace another city (possibly Houston) with it. Chuck Berry alone, as the father of rock and roll, changed music for generations. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, etc.. all say they were inspired/influenced by him. Up to his death, stars like Paul McCartney and Sinead O’Connor would make pilgrimages to St. Louis to see him. And that’s just Chuck Berry. You could go on with Miles Davis, Scott Joplin, Tina Turner (Ike Turner), Michael McDonald (yeah, I know), and others. Of course, STL may have not have been represented in the metrics chosen. This is just my opinion as a homer without his own urbanist TH-cam channel. 🙂
@CityNerd I keep expecting to see Baltimore, MD on some of these lists. I think that the city has a lot of potential and likely has a great walking score. The reality on the ground gets a bit dicey, but we do have sidewalks in the majority of the city (it seems). Have you visited? Plan to? Putting it on the radar!
Being objective, i can not ignore that Seoul should be in the top ten on the strength of KPOP alone. My daughter and all of her Gen Z friends are bonkers for that genre. And the global sales are jaw-dropping. Memphis should be in the top 5 on the strength of Elvis, blues, and Sun Records.
Gosh Mr. CityNerd this is one of the best subjects for a video I have seen. I had not seen the connection between my love of music and your videos, which I also love. I have lived in cities all my life and always the music in the city has been enormously important to me. Each city has its own scene with its own characteristics. Something to consider for another video is to try to quantify what I will call the "nightlife vibe" in different cities. "Nightlife vide" is just that feeling you get when you out at night to have some fun in the cities. Some of this is about city design actually because I believe that narrow winding streets, as seen in European cities, often increase the quality of the nightlife vibe. There are many more factors. I think that having a concentration of clubs in one area is very important. Some cities have great clubs and venues but they are in various different locations around the city which dissipates the vibe that they would otherwise be giving to a city.
I think a dishonorable mention would be Bakersfield, California, because it’s extremely car-centric and not walkable at all, yet the nu-metal band Korn and the Bakersfield sound subgenre of country music with artists such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard originated from there.
To be sure, Buck Owens is from Texas. It's really hard to imagine a guy who was THAT country being native to California ( yes I am sure there that CA still has some rodeos and ranches, but you know what I mean).
@@spindriftdrinker The central valley of california is very rural and was even more rural in the 1940s where Owens' music career took off. People just think CA is LA and SF. Shit, after ag, oil is Bakersfield's industry.
San Juan, PR and Seul, Korea were big absent figures considering the global impact of reggaeton and K-pop, respectively. In both genres, cities play a role as important hubs for music studios and local dynamics that provide inspiration for their artists. In the case of reggaeton we can trace back big hits all the way from Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina in the early 2000s to Bad Bunny.
I saw your Mastodon post about this not doing as well, but how much you wanted to make it and I have to say that I'm a regular viewer and when I saw the title of this one, I was really looking forward to getting a moment to watch this one. Great idea for a video! I love how you introduced it as how the urban fabric can foster cultural growth, which isn't something I feel like gets talked about enough over the typical economics of urbanism
Sorry but Manchester should be on this list, not Liverpool. Having one huge act come out of a scene should be less valuable than multiple big acts coming out of one scene. Manchester is an insanely influential music scene historically for a city of its size.
7:12 from a British and wider European context Liverpool is definitely not just famous for The Beatles. In terms of who is second it would be Frankie Goes to Hollywood and they were absolutely huge when they were at their peak.
Maybe I missed it but has Rick Astley ever self-identified as a Liverpudlian and/or Scouse?? Sure, he's from Greater Merseyside, but he definitely doesn't have the accent. 😮 (apparently his town is considered historically part of Lancs) 🤔
Very Anglo-centric (no wonder in view of the sources used). Stopped listening after the list. Also don't really like the dig "obscure local music in whatever local language". First video from this channel I didn't like.
For an allegedly world wide list this is clearly Anglocentric. Even in the US Miami is a global center for Latin music. When discussing NYC you didn’t mention that it has been an important center for Latin music (did you have any clue about that?) though more recently it has been eclipsed by Miami.
This list calls itself global but is so Anglophone-centered. And as aways, cities from the global south are invisibilized. The metrics chosen are bad and centered in American style music "industry"
Couldn't agree more, that was just disappointing to see. Imagine rating cities for their improtance in music history and not including Rio de Janeiro, Johannesbourg or Tokyo. It's just bafffling.
I'm surprised that Madonna didn't appear in New York. Not only one the most influential musician of the past 50 years, but one of the most influential person period.
Dumb title. This is a stupid claim. Music is communal, not urbanist. You don't need a city, or even other people, to be musical or enjoy music. Live performance is perhaps more urbanist, but it's not really something one type of human settlement can claim. Again, dumb title.
I'm a big fan of your channel but i found this video extremely short sighted and US centered. Is just obvious that if you only use american sources you're are going to falsely believe that all the greatest music cities are english speaking cities. I also think your methodology was pretty poor, a top chart or even worse a favourites list from a magazine tells you pretty much nothing about the quality of the music scene of a city: maybe you should have considered the amount and quality of the music venues, the quality of music education, the number of record labels and records produced, the number of musical acts, the size and diversity of the publics, the influence and legacy of it's music, the strenght of the musical market and then, just maybe, if the city has famous artists. You're are leaving out cities with amazing musical culture that are extremly influential for the rest of the non-english speaking world (which by the way is most of the world), namely: Buenos Aires, Berlin, Havanna, Rio de Janeiro, Kinshasa, México, Seoul, Paris, Lagos and Bogotá, just to name a few.
I would think Bay Area produced more famous acts than Jacksonville. Also if some cities made it into the list for mainly one artist (Minneapolis) then why Phoenix was not mentioned, being the residence of Alice Cooper. Also I think it’s worth mentioning Birmingham, UK for acts like Black Sabbath, ELO, The Moody Blues, Duran Duran, Judas Priest and a few more.
If you're ACTUALLY into music TH-cam, there are tons of great creators on Nebula. Sign up using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/citynerd
Or! Get a Nebula Lifetime Membership -- both subscription options are great ways to support what I do, and Lifetime especially helps if you want to see me do a pretty ambitious Original! (Careful what you wish for.) Again, my custom link: go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=citynerd
Thanks!
Really St. Louis slighted again?! What about Scott Joplin, all the Jazz and Blues stars, the father of Rock n Roll Chuck Barry, plus one of the best selling hip-hop performers of all time Nelly? We definitely deserved at least an honorable mention! 😢
Now do best music college towns! So many huge acts formed in college towns. e.g. R.E.M. came out of Athens Ga.
Kind of surprised Taylor Swift didn't get Memphis over the line.
Maybe say, the rest of this video is a Nebula ad next time.
This list calls itself global but is so Anglophone-centered. And as always, cities from the global south are invisibilized here. The metrics chosen are bad and centered in American style music "industry"
Raythony Nerdtano, internets busiest city nerd
😂
Legendary. Truly.
Give me a back and forth between these two please. I'd love that.
Fantano reeks of hipster pretentiousness
Trans-
-portation. Have you given this city a visit? Did you love it, did you hate it, what would you rate it?
The continued dominance of the NYC jazz scene is astounding. No other style of music evokes the feeling of living in a major urban environment quite like jazz.
Agreed. See: Hey Arnold 😂
for sure - whenever I travel in a major city in the States or overseas, I look for jazz clubs. The assessability and joy is unmatched
@@sterlingmarshel6299 I do the same. 😎
NY's jazz scene is great but I wish it was as good as London's
Yet, Detroit has the best annual FREE Jazz Festival. There is new music too produced like in Mack Ave Records,
Can you you calculate how many potential music careers were destroyed by the Federal-Aid Highway Act?
Motown ✊😔
Little known fact: most terrible music can be traced to communities that were enabled by the Federal-Aid Highway Act
Nightclubs do much better when people don't have to worry about driving home drunk. I've heard from people in NYC in the 60s that this was one reason.
@@CityNerdWhat terrible music can you name specifically in this sense?
@@CityNerdlol Pop-Punk
Something I always find depressing as a Portland resident is how we used to have one of the strongest jazz scenes on the west coast, until we essentially eminent domain-ed it out of existence to build Memorial Colosseum and I-5. Now, the scene is barely hanging on at a handful of venues trying to make it work.
SO true!! The "slum clearance" excuse for bulldozing neighborhoods destroyed so much history and culture.
Agalloch, my favorite band was from Portland, so you have that!
I mean by default I’d say Portland still has one of the strongest jazz scenes on the west coast, because few cities have anything resembling a “jazz scene” at all
Portland hasn't produced anyone remarkable
@@okaeTI did not know that.
shoegaze is urbanist
I always got a "cottagecore" vibe from shoegaze : )
@@MasterPuppets206shoegaze is a pretty broad genre so i think both y'all are correct
@@MasterPuppets206 obviously shoegaze is urbanist and dreampop is cottagecore
Tons of good shoegaze from Japan so that tracks
Beach fossils comes to mind lol
I really hope you do the logistics of music festivals! It's wild being from Chicago and hearing that people are in traffic for over 6 hours leaving Coachella when I go to Lollapalooza here with 450k+ attendees and am home within 15 minutes via the trains.
nice topic suggestion
Obviously that isn't the DC-MD Lollapalooza...
Something that you didn't outright say but is implied is how affordable a city is. Death Cab for Cutie is one of my favorite bands; and in the bands early days they shared a house just outside of Seattle in Bellingham(where they would record and rehearse their early music). I highlight this since Seattle home prices have priced many that could be musicians/artists from establishing social networks that'll help them grow and have a safe space to create their art.
This is a very important point since unestablished musicians can be very poor forcing those that want to live in a city to take a day job and maybe never fulfill their dreams because they're just so busy making ends meet.
It's a stretch to say that Bellingham is just outside of Seattle when it's 2 hours away. It's much closer to Vancouver.
@@matthewmoore7447ah my bad!
@@matthewmoore7447you beat me to it lol. “Just outside Seattle” is more like Tukwila, Renton, Shoreline, etc…Bellingham is basically a Vancouver BC suburb 😂
@@matthewmoore7447i mean, vancouver bc is still another hour and a half north of bellingham, more depending on the border crossing. as a local, i'd definitely consider death cab more of a bellingham band. and bellingham is not really a suburb of anything unless you count BC folks coming down to shop at the mall. it was kind of an insular college town when i was there
Was sitting at my desk at work and telepathically felt that CN posted
Tfw you realize it's noon on a Wednesday
The nerd is strong with this one
It's a bit ironic that you call Ray "CN" because that is the ISO code for China, a country he almost completely ignores, a big oversight when it comes to Urbanism give the facts. Like a lot of Americans,, he seems to be somewhat Sinophobic - something he would probably reflexively deny - but he is missing a lot living in that shell. RM does a better job venturing into Asia as a topic, o his credit.
@@unreliablenarrator6649 If you watch his videos, he relies heavily upon government and commercial data to perform his analysis. This data is widely available and reliable for the USA, less so for China. If the Chinese government would publish trustworthy data then that would allow him to apply his analysis methods to that nation as well. Instead, the CCP is more interested in investigating and harassing Western commercial intelligence operators so that they can control the narrative for themselves.
For Detroit you missed Detroit Techno. Extremely influential across the world.
And still very much alive and dynamic!
And he forgot about Kid Rock and Esham.
What?
I was really surprised he didn't mention it considering in my eyes it's like THE other big musical export out of that city behind Motown
@@viktorneiOKAYYYY!!!!
i see citynerd is also an enlightened shoegaze enjoyer
Saying Loveless is the greatest album of all time is not something I expected when I clicked on this video, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Mr. Nerd continues to prove himself the most distinguished urban elite.
Considering the amount of self-deprecation that takes place on this channel, I'm not surprised that our boy CityNerd is a shoegaze fan.
Listening to City Girl by Kevin Shields but mentally changing the words to "City Nerd".
@@ryanjohnston9313as much as I love shoegaze I have to disagree with him on that point, I just can't get into MBV
As a member of the early 90s American shoegaze contingent, I am certainly a huge fan of MBV, and I do think Loveless is one of the most seminal albums of the era, but I would hesitate to call it "the greatest album of all time". One of, yes. The? Eehhh....probably not, as Ray might say. Music is just too subjective to use those kinds of terms. OTOH, Ray also mentioned Oxford without mentioning Ride, so there's that.
Detroit not only gave rise to blues, RnB, and Motown, but also techno (Carl Craig) and early punk (band called Death). Sadly we also gave rise to Kid Rock but nonetheless, the city as a hub of music culture is super underrated.
Yeah, Kid Rock falls under that category mentioned along with Limp Bizkit, "Problematic Bands."
Detroit kinda fucked up with Kid Rock but it's okay cuz they gave us Danny Brown not long after.
The suggestion that Detroit "gave rise to Blues" is so historically inaccurate.
I find it funny how two very formative bands in guitar music (death metal and punk rock) share a name
I just can't believe how low Detroit was on this list, when I saw this topic I thought of Motown (and maybe Seattle). I didn't think of Houston or Minneapolis-St Paul, even if Prince is from there or nearby. Some of these cities also seemed to appropriate artists that made their names there but weren't from there originally (or were from not too far away), others only got on the list because a very famous artist is from there but moved to make it big in NYC or LA, it's a hotch potch of a list this one.
Pretty shocked that Manchester didn't crack the top-10 with bands like 10cc, The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Happy Mondays, Buzzcocks, Inspiral Carpet, the Bee Gees, The Verve, Courteeners, The 1975. It was also the home to one of the world's greatest rave scenes in the 80s and 90s with Madchester and the Hacienda.
I feel like your methodology is biased towards cities that have produced one big artist without larger scenes: such as Liverpool, Houston and Minneapolis/St Paul, and is missing out on cities that have a real undercurrent of music in all parts of life, such as in Manchester or New Orleans. You feel music in your bones in Manchester when you walk the streets in a way you simply don't in Houston.
Yeah, I'd put Manchester or Bristol ahead of Liverpool. It's crazy how many great bands came out of those two cities.
@@kjh23gk I don't think so? I think the American urbanist community are great and they've really injected a lot of energy into the movement in recent years.
Regardless, I don't really see how anyone could really make a coherent argument for Houston being a bigger music city than Manchester beyond overweighting Beyonce in the equation from a sheer charts perspective.
Birmingham, England is VASTLY underrated too (as always…). The home of Heavy Metal and Bhangra as well as producing acts like ELO, UB40, Black Sabbath, The Streets and Duran Duran amongst others.
Then there is Gary, Indiana which is the REAL home of The Jacksons including megastar Michael and superstar Janet.
@@TheWhiteSpaceUK Absolutely, it would be on my personal top-10 list. Obviously not quite as big as Manchester or London but I think it has a lot more depth than Liverpool, Minneapolis or Houston for example.
Criminal to miss Manchester, but Liverpool is a good shout, OMD, Elvis Costello, FGTH, Teardrop Explodes, The La's, and some four piece combo that made it big in America.
Our local NPR station had a segment last week on how Austin came up with the "Live Music Capital of the World" moniker. Spoiler, it happened probably exactly like you imagine with a boring council resolution. 😅
It wasn't really in central Austin, but at the city limits.
Although Bob Dylan is from northern Minnesota, he really got his start and found his sound in Minneapolis.
Many of his most famous songs chronicle his younger years in Minneapolis -- 'Positively 4th Street' and 'All Along the Watchtower' (which was about the Prospect Park Witch Hat tower) and many others. There used to a Bob Dylan tour in Minneapolis that showed where he lived, the clubs he played at in the West Bank and Dinkytown, and so on. Some of the groups he played with in the early 60's such as Koerner, Ray and Glover and Willie Murphy were still performing locally as late as a decade ago.
Actually, in addition to Atlanta, Athens GA punches pretty high up. The B-52s, REM, Danger Mouse, Love Tractor, and the Drive by Truckers all come from Athens (and UGA which is also in Athens). They even have their own Music Walk of Fame
Thank you for this one, honestly, music and art influence should be considered when giving points to a city, rather than only caring about having a good amount of bike lanes and bus times.
Yeah this video was partly meant as an antidote to the kida same ol same ol urbanist discourse. I really think we need to spend some time thinking and talking about all the different things that are important about cities. I think it's important politically, since so much funding and policy stuff that impacts cities comes at the federal or state level. You should have to live in a city to appreciate how important and influential they are.
It’s worth noting that Detroit is the birthplace of techno and electronic music. This fact has been largely overlooked by the US mainstream media; however, Detroit techno inspired much of the world’s techno DJs and shaped the sound of clubs worldwide. If you’re into techno, check out the Movement Music Festival held on Memorial Day weekend each year in Detroit. It has quite the international following.
facts. at least he mentioned chicago house
Detroit the birthplace of techno and house music? Based on what evidence?
@gcvrsa Chicago was the birthplace of house, Detroit of techno music, as chronicled in nearly every history written of the genres. Detroit techno was pioneered by the "bellville 3" juan atkins, derrick may and kevin saunderson, who combined their influences (Kraftwerk and Parlament Funkadelic) into a new sound using drum machines and synthesizers: techno. America was not very receptive to house or techno but European dance scenes loved sound, giving rise to the first rave culture in the UK.
Did not did not expect the crossover between the Shoegaze and urbanism communities to be this strong lol.
As a shoegaze fan and urbanist, I'm SO happy.
It's not too surprising to me. He's a slightly older guy from Seattle with thick framed glasses. If he was into Bay Area hip hop passionately, that'd be way more surprising
@@Official_KC That was both a hilarious roast and a solid compliment hahaha
Seems like a natural fit
One major correction that needs to be made here is that Bruce Springsteen is by no means a NYC act. Springsteen is a New Jersey act, based in the Asbury Park, NJ beach town scene.
New Jersey is just a glorified crew. Jk
That's why I hate, HATE, these broad-brush "Metro Area" claims. It would take close to two hours to get from Asbury Park to Central Park ...
I saw that too about Springsteen.
Lauryn Hill and Whitney Houston are also really New Jerseyans.
Regarding Minneapolis, you forgot one of the most iconic figures in American music (and one of my favorites), Bob Dylan. Minneapolis played a critical role in the early stages of Bob Dylan's career. He got his start in Minneapolis and the city had a lot influence on his career. For starters, he changed his name from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan while in Minneapolis. At the time Dylan was living there, the city had a vibrant and diverse music scene, which is exposed Dylan to a wide range of musical styles, including folk. Minneapolis had a large network of musicians that provided Dylan with an environment rich in mentorship and camaraderie among musicians. The city also served as a backdrop for Dylan's early experimentation with songwriting and performance style.
New Orleans being an honorable mention while Houston and Seattle being on this list is crazy. New Orleans invented Jazz and Lil Wayne is another incredibly influential artist the last 25 years.
replace Houston w NO they more influential
Seattle totally deserves to be on this list, grunge literally started there and was a dominant genre in the 90s. Still has a huge music scene with great shows and bands too..
Agreed New Orleans and the broader Mississippi delta area is the birthplace of jazz and Louis Armstrong, as well as one of the breeding grounds of blues music with Robert Johnson being the most influential guitarist to ever live. All of the great guitarists from the 60s such as Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix wouldn’t exist without the legend and the music of Robert Johnson.
Without it there's no jazz, rock n roll, "America" in American, "modern" in modern, or "pop" in pop, music.
And funk music@@bentz98125
New Orleans should be number one on this list, the development of early jazz in New Orleans lead to the creation of every popular genre we listen to today some way.
New York deserves the number 1. Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, it having a ton of record labels, CBGB, Studio 54, Carol King, and many influential songwriters and musicians. New Orleans should be in the Top 10 though.
The case for Toronto is Drake, The Weeknd, Rush, Broken Social Scene, Glenn Gould, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell
Broken social scene ❤ i didn't even know they were from Toronto lol
The great lakes have the greatest bands rock bands
Neil Young booked it to LA in the late 60s.
The Band!
Neil Young is more Winnipeg/LA and Joni Mitchell is more Saskatoon/LA.
Today with the internet, music tastes are so diffuse now that you really don't see 1 genre of music dominate 1 city anymore. People can bypass big recording studios and record out of their homes now, and it is quite a beautiful thing, the Democratization of music. Today some kid in rural Kansas can release an album or a single, and upload it to SoundCloud. You don't need access to a big studio anymore, which I think is a great thing
Kids get big on TikTok and get signed by major labels, gone are the days of a&r guys traveling the country looking for new acts. This brings with it a new set of issues, specifically the normification of music
I live in Nashville and used to play with a country singer from Kentucky. He lived here but booked most of his shows in Kentucky, just three hours north. He did that because being a "Nashville singer" made the folks back home think he was bigger than he really was. There's a certain prestige that comes with living here. So I get Ray's point about Nashville and Austin but if you want to be a working musician, as opposed to a "star," both are great cities to live in. Certainly living at the intersection of three Interstates helps with touring, and I hope Ray looks at the infrastructure aspect of music towns in a future video.
My favorite band is the band that plays with Billy Joel, and my favorite song is, we didn’t start the fire. Is my opinion OK? 😂
Hahahahahahaha nooooooo Kenji, say it is isn't so!! Hey, we still need to get in touch
I never thought I would see a cooking/urban planning crossover on TH-cam 😂
@@freshuniversegamingif cooking wasn't urbanist, we wouldn't complain about food deserts
@@taxirob2248 great point actually
@@freshuniversegamingI'm all about walkablility, but a grocery store takes precedence over restaurants IMO. I truly enjoy cooking for myself.
Sometimes I question what urbanism really means to people who are fans of it, I think a lot of them are really seeking out "entertainment districts" over amenities that are just as important to people who can't afford or prefer not to dine out constantly.
Still don’t understand how New Orleans is only an honorable mention.
As for Philly- we foster a lot of homegrown but once they start making a bigger impression beyond the city, they almost always pick up and move to NYC.
Interesting topic! Muscle Shoals stands out to me as an important exception to the idea that influential studios are only found in cities.
So happy to see you include Minneapolis. The city also produced Bob Dylan, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Mint Condition, and as of most recent Lizzo. Big s/o to Chicago and Detroit, the Midwest as a whole is unappreciated for how it has pushed American music forward.
Honorable mentions for the Iron Range and Rochester for Bob Dylan and Yung Gravy. The sheer amount of talent from Minnesota is crazy, and that's coming from a fellow Minnesotan musician knowing that's some big shoes to fill.
Edit; gotta shout out Gaelynn Lee. Phenomenal musician.
Bob Dylan is a New York City artist, his only connection to Minneapolis is leaving it.
@@MinnesoTristan That's just a disservice to Bob Dylan right there. Born in Duluth and literally made an album called Highway 61 Revisited.
The West Coast got two cities in there as well! (LA and Seattle).
@@MinnesoTristan He did play in coffee houses while attending the U of M and living in Minneapolis (Dinkytown). I say he has some connection.
Some people misunderstand that Austin and Nashville are known for LIVE music. Not a place where famous acts come from, but places where you can go see live music any day of the year with ease
Just a quick shout to DC. One of the four most important jazz cities in the early- to mid-1900s, along with New Orleans, Chicago, and NY. Birthplace and career starter for Duke Ellington, maybe the greatest jazzist of his era. Solid rock scene--the Mamas and Papas started in the area. Also the national center for punk music, especially hardcore punk, through the 70s and 80s. And a starting ground for tons of indie bands and artists from the 70s through 90s, including Dave Grohl. Strong hip hop scene, too, though not at the level of others on the list
I was actually surprised to see DC not get at least an Honorable Mention.
Duke Ellington, one of the great musicians of the 20th century
Marvin Gaye is also from DC!
And yeah, U Street used to be known as Black Broadway.
It makes me so happy to see an Archers shout-out, however fleeting. It never ceases to amaze me how little known they really are.
Was sort of expecting Seoul to show up here if only for the sheer popularity of kpop these days.
It's so true that music is crucial to a city's appeal. I could never leave Montreal even in favor of some urbanist paradise in Europe or Japan or whatever because I'd be too depressed without the local punk and hardcore scene. It is simply unmatched. (Huge shout out to the NYC and Toronto scenes though)
Yeah I said that too but Seoul is missing here, though it's similar to the way Nashville is I'm not sure how many artists actually come from Seoul itself. But as far as worldwide popularity and recognition, It certainly has taken off in the last two decades worldwide.
I think the problem here is the data source - the Rolling Stones top 500 list does not include to my knowledge a single Asian album. While I will allow that a lot of Asian pop music isn’t especially innovative, there have undoubtedly been great and influential albums that merit recognition. Also ones in recent years that have been the top selling albums worldwide.
I was trying to think how he could have gone more international. Seoul definitely makes sense, I would say Mumbai as well with how big Bollywood is, and it’s very tight integration of music with cinema. I would probably include a city from Brazil too, huge music scene there. These are hard boundaries to cross with language barriers though, so I get the default to English speaking cities. Just thought a more diverse representation would be more accurate if we’re thinking global influence!
@@tylermarshall46 So true for Mumbai. While we're at it Kingston, Jamaica is definitely worth mentioning too- they gave us reggae, dub, dancehall, rocksteady and of course ska 🏁
Music is too broad and varied to do a "top ten in the entire world" list. The only non-US cities on the list were all in the UK. Ray should've just kept the list to only the US, or the US and UK.
Fun video! Seeing New Orleans as just an honorable mention stung! With your metrics of popular artists I can understand, but with music being the fabric of our city and therefore our urban life, I assumed we would be in the top three. Any day or night of any day of the year, you’re probably walking distance from a show. Or maybe we’re just a drinking city with a music problem. Oh well! I’m always wondering when New Orleans will pop up on your videos for something positive lol
Agreed New Orleans should be on the list
This list is bad
Chicago obviously always been influential but i gotta shout out how incredible live music is here too. Too many fantastic venues to count, festivals of all sizes from the free neighborhood summer fests to riot fest to lolla, every nationwide tour stops here, and there's a ton of sick local bands as well. From March to October I'm gonna see at least two or three shows a month
Yesss!!!! As a musician and a City Nerd fan I am SO hyped to see this video!!! :))))
I was flabbergasted for a moment when you started dropping all the 90's bands I like. The list was very nice as well, only thing missing imo was a mention of Berlin in the honourable mentions.
So, Seattle native, my daughter also went to Washington Middle School, as did you and Jimi. Unlike Jimi and you, she did not go on to Garfield, but to Nova instead. At Washington, she learned something in the lore of students there. Why Jimi was expelled from Garfield. I won’t mention it, but it is pretty funny, and had to do with use of a certain instrument. Testing to see if you might know. Interesting to see Seattle turn up #7, a lot because of Nirvana. To be noted is that Kurt named another city in your history as where they invented grunge in the early 80s. That’s Portland, where Greg Sage and Wipers led the scene. Kurt called Greg “the godfather of grunge.” Kurt also hung around at Club Satyricon, where I saw many shows in the 80s and 90s and I believe was still around in your early Portland years.
I loved this video. Another great one. I get why Philadelphia didn't make the cut against these powerhouse cities, but in addition to Billie Holiday (as you mentioned) it produced Hall & Oates, The Roots, Patti La Belle, the O'Jays, Joan Jett, Erykah Badu, Boyz II Men, Will Smith and more. Basically a whole genre was named for the city, Philadelphia Soul or the Philadelphia Sound, which is not something you can say about too many other places. So not as many chart toppers as other cities, but Philly definitely punches above its weight, given the magnetic pull of New York City, as you said.
Oh all the cities in the video, I think Philly is the only one with its name in a (albeit now somewhat-minor) genre.
Does Philly get credit for Taylor Swift or is Reading too far awy?
@@mikeomatic9905 Yeah, the Roots are basically the last big representatives of that genre. Keepers of the flame, I suppose.
@@medlocrf7289 I thought it was crazy to not be included for that reason, but it's technically not in the metro area, so I guess not.
Without Philly, Bowie wouldn't have made Young Americans and all our lives would be worse, so you get that too
other notable artists repping toronto/GTA: the weeknd (massive commercial and critical success), deadmau5 (the biggest EDM act in his days), shawn mendez, alessia cara... importantly thou, numerous bands from the 2000s in the rock scene: alexisonfire, billy talent, sum41, avril lavigne, metric, silverstein, broken social scene, three days grace, our lady peace, tokyo police club, barenaked ladies, arkelles, finger eleven, the list goes on ...while you can say some of these artists are 'southern ontario' rather than GTA, they were a big part of the toronto live music scene and earned their chops during that time. also, we take some credit for alanis morissette, since she recorded her first album in toronto. also maaaaybeee...justin bieber gets a quarter-credit :P
forgot Nelly Furtado, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell who moved to toronto early early in their careers!
Plus Blue Rodeo and of course Dick Duck and the Dorks
Crazy that Toronto didnt make the list. R&B has been going crazy in TO since the early 2000s and even prior. Just shows that local music is always more popular locally i guess
For Seattle, you forgot to mention Heart, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Quincy Jones, Kenny G, and Macklemore.
damn all them from Seattle 💪
Not to mention Jay Park, who debuted with the K-pop group 2PM but branched out into a far more lucrative and influential solo career as one of the progenitors of K-hiphop.
Korean hip hop? Someone's gotta rap about Kim chi, I guess.
Didn't know Kenny G was from Seattle. Oh, Kenny G! 😁
oh i loved seeing this video show up in my inbox. music really is a cultural gel that can influence urbanism, and in some cases the music itself can paint that urbanism with imagery. like how in the 1990s, new york hip hop was gritty and cold like brooklyn winter streets while cali hip hop was vibrant melodic g-funk in the sun
I don't know I would have put San Francisco towards the top of the list. The San Francisco sound was really huge back in the 60's and 70's. Grateful Dead, Santana, Janis Joplin, Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, just to name a few. Also Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham met in the San Francisco area and heavily influenced by all the music coming out of the Bay Area.
I think Lindsey Buckingham gave points to Atlanta because of his creative relationship with Diondre Cole
Seems absurd to ignore SF. Guess this nerd never heard of psychedelic rock or the nexus of SF-LA bands. Must not be big with the bike lane crowd. 😂
Don't forget Madonna for New York! - and it's worth noting that music exploded in Nyc when there were cheap rents and very little supervision.
yay minneapolis! we love you prince. Birmingham england has a great lineup of big bands.
No mention of Kingston, Jamaica? So many influential Reggae acts that are popular from the Netherlands, to Brazil, to Japan, to the U.S. and Kingston artists influenced the development of hip-hop (DJ Kool Herc, godfather of hip-hop) Ska, and electronic music. Dancehall is another genre from Kingston that is very popular in New York, London and around the world, and influenced dubstep and other worldwide genres. Idk exactly how you did your math, but I think it could've deserved an honorable mention, esp considering New York and London we're you're top 1 and 2. Modern pop music would be nothing without Jamacian party culture
I hear ya
I was gonna say this, 6 genres of music it cannot not be there
If you're relying on Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, you're mostly going to have albums, which underrepresents singles and 12-inches, which is going to put reggae, dubstep, dancehall etc. at a disadvantage.
Local live music venues (especially the small venues that unknown artists start out in) and urban intensification are often at odds with each other. It usually goes something like this:
1. There is a small venue in the outskirts of town
2. Intensification spreads and medium density housing is set up in the area
3. The residents complain
4. The venue is forced to compromise or shut down and then a city only has large venues for established artists left.
How do cities navigate this problem?
Ridiculous idea. Arenas aren't the only venues. Cities have far higher densities of bars, community centers, coffee shops, etc. than suburbs ever could
Great video, but I take issue with your clam that Toronto doesn't have enough! Similar to NYC, LA, or London it's the focus of the music industry for an entire country and is extremely varied. Some of the more recognizable names who got their careers off the ground or eventually relocated to Toronto are Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, The Band, Steppenwolf, RUSH, Triumph, Saga, Klaatu, Max Webster, Martha & The Muffins, ANVIL, Platinum Blonde, Glass Tiger, Barenaked Ladies, Our Lady Peace, Death From Above, Sloan, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Sum 41, Drake, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara, Feist, Deadmau5, Crystal Castles, PUP, Alvvays, The Beaches, Billy Talent, The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Peaches, Nelly Furtado, Tokyo Police Club and many more that are only well known in Canada.
The methodology reflects popular consensus in US culture and I think it's misleading that the list is represented as reflecting something about global music importance, because it's perfectly valid to discuss American culture.
Rush alone makes Toronto deserving of being on the list!
Thing is, every Canadian musician that gets some notoriety eventually relocates to Toronto, so the chances that each of those artists getting full points for Toronto is low.
It’s absurd that Atlanta is above Toronto. But it’s one dude’s opinion on something he knows very little about, so whatever.
Totally agree. Also, Metric is one of my favorite bands and it just makes me very happy any time someone mentions them :)
I would include Stockholm in honorable mentions for ABBA, Avicii, Max Martin...
kudos for chicago house callout.
even a shot of gramaphone!
Don’t forget about the B-52s in Athens, GA while you’re thinking about Atlanta
Athens should have gotten a honorable mention by itself
And REM!
John Mayer
James Brown from Augusta he's incredible
@@trapmuzik6708 of course - i love him! Didn’t realize he was from Augusta
I don’t know why, but I would never have pegged you as a shoegaze fan. Loveless truly is a classic album.
Oh, that's funny. When he said it I was like "yup, that tracks."
Plenty of smarmy urbanite hipsters like shoegaze.
I was not surprised at all.
Thank you for mentioning 'X' on your Los Angeles bands...when a track on a playlist comes on that stops me enough to check "who's that?" it's usually 'X'
I’m so glad that Austin wasn’t on this list. As a musician who lived and worked in the city for years, I can confirm, the music scene down there is a total wasteland of mediocre blues musicians and google tech bros who play guitar in their spare time as their bands open for prog rock puppet shows.
I love a few of the Black Angel’s albums.
It used to be SO much better 10 yeas ago. It's really sad what happened to the scene down there. most of the artist have been gentrified out
Well, prog rock puppet show sounds moderately entertaining at least, I guess. I do love misplaced artistic audacity.
Let's face it, Austin is really only famous because of a few Texas blues acts and hosting SxSW, which itself has almost nothing to do with music anymore.
Here in Northern California every time I hear Austin gets hyped up its usually Venture Capitalists and Investors from San Jose and San Francisco hyping their investments there via land deals or building new office complexes there. I remember hearing that San Francisco,San Jose and Austin at one point had a good arts scene but that is killed off due to how investment groups dominate those areas via gentrification.
My personal honorable mention, Bristol UK, the birthplace of one of my fav music genres, trip hop. The city gave us Massive Attack, Portishead, Roni Size, Idles, Strangelove among others.
The fact that New Orleans didnt make the top 10 is criminal 😂
Not really. NOLA is really only notable for its early jazz history.
@@gcvrsa 😂😂
New Orleans music scene is big, but strangely it's quite rare for a local NOLA act to break out into the big mainstream. Like there are so many genres of music that literally nobody outside of New Orleans has ever heard of like Bounce.
@@swagmundfreud666 But the criteria is 'top music cities'. Music is ubiquitous in New Orleans to a greater degree than any American city. Plus I don't really agree, Louis Armstrong was the original popular music figure setting the standard for all others and influencing all popular music to this day
@@gcvrsa New Orleans music has been so influential I'd argue 20th and 21st century music basically revolve around early developments there
Fun Jacksonville fact- the Quad City DJs, known for C'mon and Ride It (The Train) and Space Jam got their start in Jacksonville. A surprisingly diverse mix of southern rock, country, hip hop, and jazz (James Weldon Johnson!) and punches well above its weight there
CityNerd being a Swervedriver fan is something I definitely needed to know! This video may not get the same big views as his other vids, but it will influence thousands of bands and urbanist TH-cam channels to form in its wake.
Eminem, Royce Da 5' 9", Kash Doll, The White Stripes, and Big Sean are some of the biggest names from detroit this millennium. I am VERY surprised Detroit isn't top 5. MoTown is named after Detroit, The Motor City. I think it's one of the only genre's that got national/international acclaim that's named after the city it began in. It's not NY or LA, but it is huge for music history, and has been culturally central for R&B and Rap/Hip-Hop. We also have huge festivals and some of the nicest theaters you'll find anywhere. The Fox Theater, The Fillmore, and many others are fantastic venues, and we have huge festivals like Electric Forest. Kid Rock is from the detroit area, too. But I don't like to claim him.
I never expected Winnipeg to be on this list despite producing acts like the Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and the Crash Test Dummies.
10:21 It breaks my heart to see Jacksonville given credit for the Allman Brothers. Macon, GA (like Little Richard and Otis Redding) is where they planted their roots.
I love the glimpse into your wide span of musical preferences and opinions, furthering my own opinion that I could probably listen to you talk about damn near anything
New Orleans, Memphis and the MS delta just lumped into one honorable mention? Oof…
New Orleans, Memphis, and Mississippi Delta are the heart and soul of the South and to just get a honorable mention is highly disrespectful
Two thoughts (apologies if I’m not the first to make either point)
1) Maybe sometimes saying “by the way, New York is expensive” can feel a bit de rigueur or whatever… but to discuss all the great music that town has produced (mostly when it was a lot less unaffordable) without lamenting how prohibitively expensive and for that reason hostile the place is to creative people, hit my palette in kind of a funny way.
2) To my knowledge this is the first foray on the channel outside of North America, and I feel like it’s a great case-in-point for staying in this hemisphere. I know there were attempts at making music a metric-friendly quantity, and that’s fine… but like… there’s a whole world out there outside of the US and UK, and a lot of music beloved by millions, and of genres that aren’t popular (or maybe even known) among the industry kingmakers behind the billboard charts or pitchfork or whatever. It just feels like there’s now worms crawling all over the floor, because you opened a can, and that can could’ve stayed closed by limiting geographic scope as has always been the case. I hate worms, man.
Always good to see Detroit on one of these positive lists!
Detroit got a legendary past n I heard things is improving downtown
Should have been higher (and I say this as someone not even from the US). When I think of US music cities I think of Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, and Nashville. The biggest cities will obviously have more stars and big name bands, and I'm not sure enough research and into this as Houston should definitely not be on the list (and showing of Houston's, Whitney Houston was from NJ not NY).
Atlanta is a huge music hub for hip hop in the US.
Why am I not surprised at all that you're an Archers of Loaf, Swervedriver, and MBV fan? Very on-brand.
Seattle and Portland were both so important to the grunge scene. Something about the dark grey skies fits the music way too well.
The bay area definitely should be in this list though. It produced so much metal, especially on the thrash side. Metallica and megadeth being the two most notable examples. Hell, it's literally called bay area thrash metal for a reason.
sorry but you can't link Portland with Seattle in the 90's - it was Seattle period
@@sterlingmarshel6299 Except, no. Portland was insanely important to the grunge scene around the same time. It also had an active punk scene. Do some basic google searches, man. Even kobain talked about this. Portland was wild in the 90's.
Historically, the San Francisco Bay Area should have been on the list, but it is slowly becoming a wealthy city state that is unaffordable to artists.
I remember Megatone Records and the tons of groups in SFO back in the days when dance music was really taking off
Moreso than Houston.
Ironically, the very thing that made the Bay Area cool is why the tech bros came here, who then ultimately ran it out of town by jacking up the costs.
@@chicagoakland I think it started before the tech boom. The tech boom certainly accelerated it though.
If you are into jazz the SFJazz Center is a win. It is the largest non-profit jazz presenter in the world. Just about every act in the business plays there and they have classes, not just for music, but for mixing/recording too. They also keep the tradition alive in the local schools.
Never did I ever think I’d get rickrolled on this channel
Stranger still, seeing as Rick Astley isn't even from Liverpool, proper! 😂
Let that be a lesson
Philly not being on this list is my Joker moment. The Roots, Boyz II Men, Hall & Oates, War on Drugs, The Menzingers, Circa Survive, Modern Baseball, Dr Dog. Punches so far above its weight
Kurt Vile!
Judging by that list it sounds like they punch somewhat below their weight
That's a bit harsh. Would Todd Rundgren help tip the scales? Chubby Checker, maybe? John Coltrane? Schoolly D?@@SteveBluescemi
Don’t forget Pat Finnerty and August is Falling.
Not only those artists, but all of these are from the Philly area as well: Jim Croce, P!nk, Eve, Pattie Labele, The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Meek Mill, Lil Uzi Vert, Diplo, Marshmello, Joan Jett and Taylor Swift (Reading, but if NY claims Bruce we can claim Taylor)
I was surprised Stockholm didn't get an honorable mention, but it might be in a similar category as Nashville.
Boston is a great city for concerts, there are some good and popular bands from Boston, but it's a great city to see a show
Please keep making videos like these!! They’re very cool!
A solid list and interesting subject to explore. I would add St. Louis to the list, or replace another city (possibly Houston) with it. Chuck Berry alone, as the father of rock and roll, changed music for generations. The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, etc.. all say they were inspired/influenced by him. Up to his death, stars like Paul McCartney and Sinead O’Connor would make pilgrimages to St. Louis to see him.
And that’s just Chuck Berry.
You could go on with Miles Davis, Scott Joplin, Tina Turner (Ike Turner), Michael McDonald (yeah, I know), and others.
Of course, STL may have not have been represented in the metrics chosen. This is just my opinion as a homer without his own urbanist TH-cam channel. 🙂
@CityNerd I keep expecting to see Baltimore, MD on some of these lists. I think that the city has a lot of potential and likely has a great walking score. The reality on the ground gets a bit dicey, but we do have sidewalks in the majority of the city (it seems). Have you visited? Plan to? Putting it on the radar!
Being objective, i can not ignore that Seoul should be in the top ten on the strength of KPOP alone. My daughter and all of her Gen Z friends are bonkers for that genre. And the global sales are jaw-dropping.
Memphis should be in the top 5 on the strength of Elvis, blues, and Sun Records.
I get placing Hendrix in Seattle, but after he left the army the first place(s) he played professionally were in Clarksville and Nashville.
Kingston, Jamaica.. I mean, cmon..
Gosh Mr. CityNerd this is one of the best subjects for a video I have seen. I had not seen the connection between my love of music and your videos, which I also love.
I have lived in cities all my life and always the music in the city has been enormously important to me. Each city has its own scene with its own characteristics.
Something to consider for another video is to try to quantify what I will call the "nightlife vibe" in different cities. "Nightlife vide" is just that feeling you get when you out at night to have some fun in the cities. Some of this is about city design actually because I believe that narrow winding streets, as seen in European cities, often increase the quality of the nightlife vibe.
There are many more factors. I think that having a concentration of clubs in one area is very important. Some cities have great clubs and venues but they are in various different locations around the city which dissipates the vibe that they would otherwise be giving to a city.
I think a dishonorable mention would be Bakersfield, California, because it’s extremely car-centric and not walkable at all, yet the nu-metal band Korn and the Bakersfield sound subgenre of country music with artists such as Buck Owens and Merle Haggard originated from there.
To be sure, Buck Owens is from Texas. It's really hard to imagine a guy who was THAT country being native to California ( yes I am sure there that CA still has some rodeos and ranches, but you know what I mean).
I just posted Bakersfield, tongue in cheek.
"I was driving home, early Sunday morning, through Bakersfield ..."
Wiki says Owens died there, but he was born in Texas & then moved to Arizon when he was young.
@@spindriftdrinker The central valley of california is very rural and was even more rural in the 1940s where Owens' music career took off.
People just think CA is LA and SF. Shit, after ag, oil is Bakersfield's industry.
Out of his lane 100%
San Juan, PR and Seul, Korea were big absent figures considering the global impact of reggaeton and K-pop, respectively. In both genres, cities play a role as important hubs for music studios and local dynamics that provide inspiration for their artists. In the case of reggaeton we can trace back big hits all the way from Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina in the early 2000s to Bad Bunny.
Is this guy for real ?
I saw your Mastodon post about this not doing as well, but how much you wanted to make it and I have to say that I'm a regular viewer and when I saw the title of this one, I was really looking forward to getting a moment to watch this one. Great idea for a video! I love how you introduced it as how the urban fabric can foster cultural growth, which isn't something I feel like gets talked about enough over the typical economics of urbanism
Sorry but Manchester should be on this list, not Liverpool. Having one huge act come out of a scene should be less valuable than multiple big acts coming out of one scene. Manchester is an insanely influential music scene historically for a city of its size.
7:12 from a British and wider European context Liverpool is definitely not just famous for The Beatles. In terms of who is second it would be Frankie Goes to Hollywood and they were absolutely huge when they were at their peak.
Relax!
The Searchers, The Coral, The Teardrop Explodes, the La's...
@@Ianmackable Dead or Alive, a Flock of Seagulls etc.
Maybe I missed it but has Rick Astley ever self-identified as a Liverpudlian and/or Scouse??
Sure, he's from Greater Merseyside, but he definitely doesn't have the accent. 😮
(apparently his town is considered historically part of Lancs) 🤔
Very Anglo-centric (no wonder in view of the sources used). Stopped listening after the list. Also don't really like the dig "obscure local music in whatever local language".
First video from this channel I didn't like.
You have intersected my two biggest obsessions. Great as usual!
For an allegedly world wide list this is clearly Anglocentric. Even in the US Miami is a global center for Latin music. When discussing NYC you didn’t mention that it has been an important center for Latin music (did you have any clue about that?) though more recently it has been eclipsed by Miami.
The Bay should definitely be on here!
-The Grateful Dead
-Dave Brubeck Quartet
-Santana
-Journey
-Green Day
-E-40
-H.E.R.
and so many more
The Dead Kennedys, Rancid, Flipper, The Coup. Agreed.
This list calls itself global but is so Anglophone-centered. And as aways, cities from the global south are invisibilized. The metrics chosen are bad and centered in American style music "industry"
Couldn't agree more, that was just disappointing to see. Imagine rating cities for their improtance in music history and not including Rio de Janeiro, Johannesbourg or Tokyo. It's just bafffling.
I'm surprised that Madonna didn't appear in New York. Not only one the most influential musician of the past 50 years, but one of the most influential person period.
Dumb title. This is a stupid claim. Music is communal, not urbanist. You don't need a city, or even other people, to be musical or enjoy music. Live performance is perhaps more urbanist, but it's not really something one type of human settlement can claim. Again, dumb title.
Now you're deep diving! Great perspective on music and its relationship with cities 😊
I'm a big fan of your channel but i found this video extremely short sighted and US centered. Is just obvious that if you only use american sources you're are going to falsely believe that all the greatest music cities are english speaking cities. I also think your methodology was pretty poor, a top chart or even worse a favourites list from a magazine tells you pretty much nothing about the quality of the music scene of a city: maybe you should have considered the amount and quality of the music venues, the quality of music education, the number of record labels and records produced, the number of musical acts, the size and diversity of the publics, the influence and legacy of it's music, the strenght of the musical market and then, just maybe, if the city has famous artists. You're are leaving out cities with amazing musical culture that are extremly influential for the rest of the non-english speaking world (which by the way is most of the world), namely: Buenos Aires, Berlin, Havanna, Rio de Janeiro, Kinshasa, México, Seoul, Paris, Lagos and Bogotá, just to name a few.
I would think Bay Area produced more famous acts than Jacksonville. Also if some cities made it into the list for mainly one artist (Minneapolis) then why Phoenix was not mentioned, being the residence of Alice Cooper. Also I think it’s worth mentioning Birmingham, UK for acts like Black Sabbath, ELO, The Moody Blues, Duran Duran, Judas Priest and a few more.
Yikes this is so cringe.
Why?