Hey Seattle, when it comes to music, you're Number Five
by John Fisher,posted Aug 7 2012 10:11AM
We think of ourselves as a pretty great music city, right? Well now it's official -- on a list of where the musicians are, Seattle comes in fifth, behind Nashville, New York, L.A., and San Francisco.
Numerous U.S. cities have staked claims as leading music centers. Seattle had its grunge, Chicago has electric blues, and Nashville its twang. Detroit was the birthplace of both Motown and the hard-edge distorted indie rock of The White Stripes. Austin has Stevie Ray Vaughn, Willie Nelson, and a host of legendary singer-songwriters. Then there's of course New Orleans jazz, brass, and funk; San Francisco’s psychedelic sound; and the reverb-soaked rockabilly that is inextricably associated with Memphis’s Sun Records.
To better understand the geography of music in America, [some experts] analyzed stats on music and recording industry business establishments, and combined the results into a Metro Music Index. It is important to point out that we are measuring the concentration of musicians and music-related businesses, not the vibrancy or impact or quality of artists to emerge from a regional scene.
Here's the whole list. It's kind of hard to believe that Rochester, NY and Orlando, FL rank higher than, say, Austin and Chicago. Maybe Disney World emplys a huge number of musicians? But Rochester? I don't get that.
Rank
Metro
Metro Music Index
1
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN
1.00
2
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
