Why Is L.A. the Most Popular City for Bands - By Far?
There's also California's famous laid-back attitude, where it's more socially acceptable to ditch the corporate world and instead play music on the beach all day, supporting yourself with odd jobs.
Despite the good that comes with being a creative center, there's also a nauseating element to all this; we attract a lot of fame whores, and that includes musicians. Many artists still move to L.A. expecting to be discovered by Someone Important, get played on the radio and become rich. This mentality has helped promote the pay-to-play clubs. But like all cities L.A. has both those who only hang out at the most obvious, touristy destinations, and the urban pioneers who discover new places, and new neighborhoods are constantly becoming trendy.
See also: Why Highland Park Is the New Echo Park
Or you can ignore the traditional club/bar circuit all together and find a d.i.y space.
There are an endless amount of non-traditional, under-the-radar spaces to see shows in LA. The choices range from house venues like HM157, galleries like performance art space Human Resources (where No Age played this summer), and under-the-radar dance parties at Freak City.
So yes, we can anecdotally confirm the results of Florida's survey. L.A. does indeed seem to attract a lot of musicians, and if you're one of them, you'll probably like it on the West Coast.
We don't want to oversell our fair city though, or we might end up with more jaded songs like Frank Black's "Los Angeles," in which he sings: "I want to live in Los Angeles/
Not the one in Los Angeles/ Counting helicopters on a Saturday night/The symphony of the fair light."
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