what city/place do you all think a thriving music scene will come out of?

[sabriel9v]

Originally Posted by Scafeets

Chicago??!!
Stop the presses.

I've heard a lot of great and interesting music all over NC, especially the Chapel Hill and Asheville areas.
Boston has had 40 years to rebuild after the great BossTown hype of 1968-9.
Cleveland always rocks.

Initially the OP did ask about what venues were good in Chicago, so I told him

What 'scene' are you referring to? I'm not seeing any.

There are tons of scenes going on right now. Somebody mentioned further up in the post that Atlanta has an underground garage/punk scene going on and that's true. Stoner rock/metal is also super popular in the southeast and bands like Baroness, Mastodon, and Jucifer are at the head of those movements. All over London (especially in the south), grime and dubstep are extremely popular. Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans and the Bay Area all have amazing rap scenes. They aren't as well publicized on MTV as they used to be, but the money is still there. I recently read that some rapper out of LA named Glasses Malone sold roughly 40,000 copies of his two mixtapes independently and he signed to a major because of it. In San Fran, psychedelic rock and blues is still popular, bands like Earthless and Mammatus are holding the torch in that scene...do I need to go further?

No offense to the 40+ guys on the forum, but I feel that a scene HAS to have young people and largely revolves around young people. It's our new ideas and ways of thinking that build a scene. Let's be honest, how many 40 yr olds are going to buy a keg, invite a bunch of bands over and see how many people they can get out to their party? Not many, unless they were already doing stuff like that when they were 18 and 19.

[Scafeets]

Originally Posted by sabriel9v

Initially the OP did ask about what venues were good in Chicago, so I told him .

<Doh!> My bad. Gotta work on that reading comprehension thing....

[BlueStrat]

No offense to the 40+ guys on the forum, but I feel that a scene HAS to have young people and largely revolves around young people.

None taken, you are correct.

I guess what you're calling scenes, I tend to think of more as small pockets of activity.

A scene to me is like what happened in the deep South in the 70s, with the creation of the southern rock sound, leading to the Allman Bros, Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, the Outlaws, Charlie Daniels band, etc; Austin in the 70s with the Outlaw Country thing, Wilie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff, etc; Austin again in the 80s with SRV, Fabulout T Birds, etc; Seattle in the 90s with STP, Nirvan, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, etc. Those were huge scenes that were heavily influential and changed the direction of music for a time.

[slight-return]

Originally Posted by BlueStrat

I guess what you're calling scenes, I tend to think of more as small pockets of activity.

I think that's a probably part of the problem -- what constitutes a 'scene' is going to be interpreted differently.

I mean m-w defines it (as used in this way) as "a sphere of activity" -- but we probably load it with a lot more. And we're all probably loading it differently
("thriving" maybe helps a little, but probably not that much as what we can think about that can be up for grabs too - like does it have to be large or can it be stable and active)

I think there's also going to be some "Blue Honda" syndrome (if you are about to buy a blue honda, you'll starting blue Hondas on the road more) --in our own areas of interest we'll probably see more activity and that activity as part of a cohesive scene.

For instance, I'd venture to guess that "music scene" defaults in a lot of minds to rock, blues, pop -- bars and nightclubs as primary venues.

like sab's take
No offense to the 40+ guys on the forum, but I feel that a scene HAS to have young people and largely revolves around young people. It's our new ideas and ways of thinking that build a scene. Let's be honest, how many 40 yr olds are going to buy a keg, invite a bunch of bands over and see how many people they can get out to their party?

Well, that's pretty much a youth-oriented model -- that's where he is in life right now.

[richardmac]

The big new topic among singer/songwriters is the "make your own" scene approach. And Blue is right, it's not really a "scene," but the concept is useful... if you want fans, and you want to make money, you might be better off finding a venue that will host you but will not charge you "rent," and you sell tickets and CD's and keep everything. If you can build a following and start getting 100 people out to see you at $10 a ticket, you're going to make more money than playing at the "big name" clubs in your city. Even bringing in 50 people might make you more money. Some big name clubs don't pay you anything and the people who go there don't buy CD's.

[Scafeets]

Originally Posted by sabriel9v

No offense to the 40+ guys on the forum, but I feel that a scene HAS to have young people and largely revolves around young people. It's our new ideas and ways of thinking that build a scene.

No offense taken, but consider that it sometimes takes perspective to gauge whether something is, in fact, a scene or a flash in the pan.

While the scene-makers are, almost be definition, young, "Oldsters" like Clive Davis (San Francisco) Jerry Wexler (Macon, Mussel Shoals) Seymour Stein (CBGB) and many others recognized local phenomena and brought it to the world.

[sabriel9v]

Originally Posted by BlueStrat

None taken, you are correct.

I guess what you're calling scenes, I tend to think of more as small pockets of activity.

A scene to me is like what happened in the deep South in the 70s, with the creation of the southern rock sound, leading to the Allman Bros, Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, the Outlaws, Charlie Daniels band, etc; Austin in the 70s with the Outlaw Country thing, Wilie, Waylon, Jerry Jeff, etc; Austin again in the 80s with SRV, Fabulout T Birds, etc; Seattle in the 90s with STP, Nirvan, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, etc. Those were huge scenes that were heavily influential and changed the direction of music for a time.

You've listed some very influential and successful scenes. I'm most familiar with the alt-rock/grunge Seattle scene, but then again I was between the ages of 6-8 when that was popular

Have you heard the term scenesters? Scenesters are the same as hipsters, beatniks, hippies, scene people, they're all the same. I figure once you start seeing the same shallow, superficial kids hanging around a venue for drinks, fashion, the "it" band of the moment and not the music, you've got a scene lol. Or at least those are the surefire indicators of a burgeoning scene.