Historic music scene hot pockets in the USA question.

[lungimsam]

For those who were there...or the history buffs out there...

There are plenty of musicians in every part of the USA.
Why do there seem to be hot pockets that produce the most successfully marketed music?
Is it the musicians, or just the fact that, for whatever reason, promoters and industry are there at the time?

 

[gjmalcyon]

That's a great question. There are the perennial perpetual choices (Nashville, Memphis, Austin, etc.), and there also seems to places that had an outsized influence for a on music for a shorter period of time: Athens, GA (R.E.M., Widespread Panic, The B-52's and the Indigo Girls), Seattle (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana), the Mississippi Delta, Laurel Canyon ....

 

[Rocky]

Well, some of it has (had) to do if there's a local scene of people willing to listen to new original music, and venues to host it. Boston has always been a music city, due to the number of colleges there. Athens is still a music town, though there haven't been a lot of big new names from there.

Most of the 'big music towns' however are getting to be too expensive for starving original musicians to live. Boston, NY, LA, SF, Nashville, Austin. Add 'pay to play' and it's very hard to make a living playing music in any of those towns. When I would visit Austin, I'd hit up the pawn shops, and buy equipment from all the folks who moved there to make it and went broke.

 

[lungimsam]

if there's a local scene of people willing to listen to new original music, and venues to host it

A-ha! Those are factors I hadn't thought of... very insightful...

When I would visit Austin, I'd hit up the pawn shops, and buy equipment from all the folks who moved there to make it and went broke.

An excellent strategy!

 

[mavuser]

there was a time when many musicians relocated to LA and NYC. There was a always a music scene and big record companies in those cities. This is back when getting a new record deal actually meant something. Same for a lot of southern locations that i'm not specifically familliar with. But you could gig around the delta areas, and then go cut one song at Sun Studios, or something like that. Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis may have started out that way. I don't really know the history of motown, but with so many workers on the production lines, and all of them getting paid regularly, there is certainly opportunity for live music, and audiences. now we are talking some serious glory days. today is such a different world. live music and gentrification now go together, for many smaller music markets. nothing is better though, than a random tiki bar somewhere, in some average joe town, that has some great live music on a good night! Or the guy at the ski resort lodge playing a solo acoustic set next to the fireplace.

 

[jp]

Great question! There are definitely cities or towns that undeniably have a constant scene going on, especially college towns. I do believe, however, that sometimes there's just a convergence of talent, creativity, and people that start a spark somewhere. And musicians consciously move to where the scene is growing. For my era as a young musician, independent labels played a big part in growing these scenes. This was the time when artists started to rebel against how record companies handled new bands.

I remember the buzz around Minneapolis when Prince ruled the roost, but there was also a big underground scene burbling with The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Husker Du, and more. Athens also had a lot going on at the time with the R.E.M. B-52s, Widespread Panic, Flat Duo Jets, and Pylon. Austin was also notorious for a great scene. And then Seattle became huge with the grunge scene. The big cities always had something going on -- NYC, LA, and Boston. Chicago consistently has one of the greatest music scenes, IMO.

My wife and I arrived here in Portland just as its moment happened. Modest Mouse, the Decembrists, M. Ward, Elliot Smith, and Sleater-Kinney, the Shins, and the Dandy Warhols were kind of hitting it big at the time, although Portland's time in the soptlight has now passed. I'm very glad for that.

 

[Rocky]

I don't really know the history of motown, but with so many workers on the production lines, and all of them getting paid regularly, there is certainly opportunity for live music, and audiences. now we are talking some serious glory days.

Huge numbers of folks - artists and audience moving from the rural South to Chicago, Detroit, etc. to staff first defense contractors, then the automotive industry. The music became electrified to be loud enough to compete with crowded establishments. What a time for music!

That said, on the Eastern CT shoreline, while not groundbreaking, has a huge number of bands, duos and solo acts for a population of it's size. There is music literally every night of the week, and it's pretty darn awesome. A lot are cover bands, as can be expected but there are some great, great original artists as well.

 

[Guilderland21]

Why do there seem to be hot pockets that produce the most successfully marketed music?

I don't know about the broader trend, but one of the best guitarists at my high school was also a big fan of Hot Pockets - certainly possible they inspired a few of his punk band's songs at the time, or at least kept them from getting hungry while practicing

(Now I'll go back and read everyone's very thoughtful and on-topic answers...)

 

[Bill Ashton]

In the late 60's, one promoter/producer tried to create the Boss-town (Boston) Sound...Ultimate Spinach, Earth Opera, Beacon Street Union, Orpheous were the "majors," heavily promoted on radio. Didn't last very long. "US" and Orpheous had good freshman efforts, but mostly it all just crashed.

Of side interest, Peter Rowan, fresh from Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, was a member of Earth Opera and then Seatrain before returning to roots music...and Skunk Baxter, later Doobie Brother, session guitarist and missle defense analyst, was guitarist in the last death-throws of Ultimate Spinach.

 

[crank]

Huge numbers of folks - artists and audience moving from the rural South to Chicago, Detroit, etc. to staff first defense contractors, then the automotive industry. The music became electrified to be loud enough to compete with crowded establishments. What a time for music!

That said, on the Eastern CT shoreline, while not groundbreaking, has a huge number of bands, duos and solo acts for a population of it's size. There is music literally every night of the week, and it's pretty darn awesome. A lot are cover bands, as can be expected but there are some great, great original artists as well.

I did not know this.

I now live just west of CT in N, but lived in southwest CT for decades. We've always had a decent live music scene there as well as across the border here. Last original band I was in played a few gigs in New London.

We recently lost a CT banjo picker, Roger Strung ,who was in his 90's and was part of NYC's Washington Square Park folk scene back in the 60's.

 

[tonepoet]

Sometimes regional "hot pockets" happened because of music or recording business people that created a focal point. Such as Sam Phillips with his recording studio and Sun Records in Nashville (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins).

Barry Gordy in Detroit starting Motown and its recording studio. A guy in Detroit named Russ Gibbs who promoted concerts at venues like the Grande Ballroom who brought in the likes of The Who, Cream, John Mayall and other British bands and had local groups like The Stooges, MC5, SRC, The Frost and The Amboy Dukes as opening acts.

Bill Graham promoting concerts in San Francisco. Doug Weston and David Geffen in L.A.

The Chess brothers with all the blues on Chess Records in Chicago.