OT - What is your region's music stereotype?

[Tenstrum]

Being from Northeast Tennessee (the birth place of country music), it seems that people from outside my region expect me to be some country music picking barefoot hill billy. Which is really sad. I personally don't like 90% of country music and would never play it (bluegrass is different). I like my rock and love playing it! Taking a guess, I'd say that 75% of bands in this area are rock or harder. There are of course the stereo typical country and blues bands (not knocking anyone) but everytime I travel and people find out where I'm from and I play music, I get asked: "So do you play any Garth Brooks?" (just an example). It doesn't help though that there is the occasional: "PLAY SOME SKYNARD" yelled out...*groan*.

So what do people "expect" your music style to be?

[dcr]

It's funny you should ask that. The other day I read an interview with Duck Dunn, who said he originally thought of the music he played as essentially just "regional" music, & was surprised when it was internationally successful. That got me to thinking: if I started playing regional music, what would I be playing?

 

I think the answer is, "The radio."

 

I live in KS, & I don't think we have a regional music, or even a stereotype. Back in the day, of course, this area was central in the cattle industry, so I suppose there would have been a lot of cowboy songs & dance-hall numbers. But that's all for the history books, now.

 

Is there still regional music? Or is it just that some regions, like mine, don't have any?

[getz out]

The US is regionally skewed towards hip-hop and country music. Take a look at the charts.

 

If you want to start a successful, independent radio station, play classic country in the morning, have Rush Limbaugh in the afternoon, followed by comtemporary country for the rush-hour crowd. At night, play hip-hop.

 

Rock and roll isn't dead... but it's not what it used to be.

[Jimbroni]

In Detroit, everyone wants to sound like the White Stripes or some variation on Iggy Pop. The other case is everybody wanting to sound like the Grey Boy Allstars or the Rippingtons. We do have a good DJ scene as well.

 

But if you're into peace, love, and happiness they laugh you out of the city, and you end up playing for the college kids in Ann Arbor.

[Scoot]

Originally posted by dcr:

I think the answer is, "The radio."

Yes, and that makes me sad.

 

If you scan our fine Wichita stations you may find more "classic rock" and "modern country" per capita than anywhere else in the country. Even the "big" rock station here has peppered their playlist with AC/DC, Ozzy et al in recent years.

 

So yeah, I guess I'm agreeing with you. We have no real regional music, just background music while we make airplanes and harvest wheat.

[Tenstrum]

Rock and roll isn't dead... but it's not what it used to be.

Music evolves...not always for the better. Brittany Spears and Boy Bands are proof of that...

 

The US is regionally skewed towards hip-hop and country music.

Not really refering to radio play. Just more what people expect when they here: "Hey you're from blah-blah-blah. I bet you listen/play some blah-blah-blah."

[MercenaryBassist]

Region: North Central California

Music Scene: Karaoke

 

I think I'll move.

[getz out]

Originally posted by Tenstrum:

Not really refering to radio play. Just more what people expect when they here: "Hey you're from blah-blah-blah. I bet you listen/play some blah-blah-blah."

The US is relatively gentrified, which I believe was DCR's point. M-TV (Cable TV in general) and radio syndicates have made sure that the kids in Licoln, NE are listening to the same music as the kids in Boston, MA and Tampa, FL.

 

I fly all over the place for work, and the only way for me to tell where the hell I am, most of the time, is local cuisine and how the people that are about 50 are attired.

 

All the kids look the same and talk the same. They all watch that M-TV.

 

PS - as a general rule, if people line up for sausage biscuts covered in white gravy for breakfast, you are not in New York. However, you might be in 90% of the rest of the US. And if there is a 5,000 seat church every quarter mile, with gun-shops and Walmarts in between, you are most likely in Tulsa.

[Jimbroni]

Damn you guys are making me proud to be a Detroiter. How depressing.

[MercenaryBassist]

Yeah, playing in bands around here is depressing. Always playing in a little podunk bar and you always feel like you're annoying the drunks. Unless you play country and then you're just soothing the cowboys between fights.

 

Had to go down to Sacramento to find an audience that appreciated music. Stoney Inn House of Blues actually had people who paid money to come in and listen to music. I was amazed.

[SteveC]

Isn't the music that is being played on your radio whatever Clearchannel decides to play. They own like 90% of the radio stations in the country, right?

 

As for bands, around here if you want to play in the smoke-filled bars you better play country and/or "classic" rock.

[MercenaryBassist]

Originally posted by SteveC:

As for bands, around here if you want to play in the smoke-filled bars you better play country and/or "classic" rock.

Ha ha, California has smoke-free bars. Whoopie!

[Steve Force]

Originally posted by Jimbroni:

In Detroit, everyone wants to sound like the White Stripes or some variation on Iggy Pop. The other case is everybody wanting to sound like the Grey Boy Allstars or the Rippingtons. We do have a good DJ scene as well.

 

But if you're into peace, love, and happiness they laugh you out of the city, and you end up playing for the college kids in Ann Arbor.

Just scratching the surface, Jimbroni!

 

Detroit's stereotypes are fitting, IMHO.

 

Add:

 

1. Techno (Carl Craig, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, et al)

2. Rock (Mitch Ryder, Grand Funk, many, many others....)

3. Jazz!

4. Rhthym & Blues (John Lee Hooker, etc)

5. Doo-Wop

6. Gospel

7. Soul

8. Blues

9. Rap (Eminem, etc),

10. Indie Rock (White Stripes, VOn Bondies, etc)

11 and... Motown!

[...]

Bad music? Seriously. 99% of the bands that I see or share a bill with in this town are horrible. People don't need to know how to play their instruments anymore to form a band and get gigs. Most of them are 'punk' or 'nu-metal' and suck more than the deepest vacuum of space.

[wraub]

I will agree with Bump on that, a lot of newer bands seem to think that even attempting musicianship is a bad move. IMO once you are sure that modern music is all made in computers and boxes,, and that anybody can do it, working hard to develop musical skill is less important to you.

 

That said, in spite of a few lame bands that I have heard lately, the stereotype for my region is that the best of the best are here, making every kind of music you can imagine, a few you haven't, and a few that should perhaps have been left unimagined completely forever.

I tend to think it's largely true.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[getz out]

Originally posted by SteveC:

As for bands, around here if you want to play in the smoke-filled bars you better play country and/or "classic" rock.

Steve, that's the case for most of the country; they crowd that goes out to see non-major-label acts tends to be in this demographic. I'm not sure it has anything to do with what's "in" for a region.

 

That's part of the problem playing live shows of original music these days. The 25-32 crowd I'm looking to draw into bars is not looking to go to a bar an listen to live music. The 13-17 crowd would love to, but there aren't any bars left that will let these kids in (damn secure IDs!).

 

To Bump's point, I've been in good bands and bad bands that play original music. Generally, it didn't matter that much how good we were, it was all about draw. I was in a bad band that had a lot more friends than fans. Stinks.

 

Same goes for cover-bands. If you can get a following, you're in.

[Jimbroni]

Steve,

Of course, you're right all of those things have been around and still are. Though, you have to admit the majority of whats happening downtown right now is people trying to be the next Jazzhead or the next Von Bondies. The hip hop and techno scenes are very esoteric like if you're not tied into drug dealing somehow you're not getting into the club. So I don't count that nonsense.

[Steve Force]

Originally posted by Jimbroni:

Steve,

Of course, you're right all of those things have been around and still are. Though, you have to admit the majority of whats happening downtown right now is people trying to be the next Jazzhead or the next Von Bondies. The hip hop and techno scenes are very esoteric like if you're not tied into drug dealing somehow you're not getting into the club. So I don't count that nonsense.

Yes, for many this is true. No doubt.

 

However, if you ask our European friends what they know about the Detroit music scene they will say, with absolutely no hesitation:

1. Rap

2. Motown

3. Techno

[ChrisOfDoom]

Oh thats easy. 10 years later half the bands that come to Seattle on a tour that I see go into at least part of "Smells like Teen Spirit."

 

Or they say something like "So you guys all like grunge right?"

[erikmag]

San fransisco has a wide variety of stereotypes. but mainly Greatful dead style stoner jam bands, the whole hippy thing.

[Jimbroni]

Hell with the Dead tell me about the Airplane.

[44 hurts]

Southern California:

 

Surfs up, dude!

[Adamixoye]

Specifically in Boulder, it's live music. Jam bands are big. Eclectic is good. Local is good, non-local is not.

 

In Denver, I think anything goes.

[Steve Force]

When I think Colorado, I think John Denver, Dan Fogelberg, et al.

 

A generational thing, for sure!

[doc taz]

Rap, Latin music, and AOR is pretty big in my locale. I do like some groups from those genres, but mostly I stick to my prog, jazz, classical, some hardcore/punk, extreme metal, and blues leanings. And of course, lately my mind's been warped slightly by electronica. I love some of the "freestyle" rap that some of the college radio stations play here, though. That's the best way to rap, IMHO, much like jazz improv.

[onelove]

My area is definitely a rock-town. Folk music is also becoming quite popular, and lots of experimental music There are also lots of independent bands/artists coming out of my neck of the woods. I'm not sure how much of that would carry over to outsiders' expectations of me as a musician though...

[Steve Force]

So, onelove, which region do you live in?

[RHINO_ROB]

my immediate area is blues(12 bars all night just switch the key from time to time and if you know any srv then you are definitely in). there is two blues only bars a few miles from my house then there is the acoustic only bar. and there is the play what ever you want as long as you can draw a crowd. mostly blues and classic rock. then towards sacramento it is pop punk or nu-metal. but there seems to be a resurgence in 60's rock and there has always been an extreme metal scene around that fires off for a while then dies down.

[ClarkW]

Region: North Central Utah (Salt Lake City, Provo/Orem)

 

Stereotypes: Contemporary religious, folk, nu-metal, acoustic folk, emo, folkpop, contemporary religious folk, and a capella.

 

I'm not joking, either.

[ATM]

Down here in SW Florida, you had better be able to play "Margaritaville" at least once during a set. Lot of acoustically done rock and one-man-bands on the beaches. One reason I got myself an acoustic/electric bass and a Pignose rechargable amp.