Which city would you declare as the US cultural capital if there is one?

[JManc]

There is none. New York is the biggest city and the biggest magnet for arts and culture but its impact is pretty limited overall. The US is too big with enough large population centers where one city is not the center of culture like London is to the UK.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Chautauqua, NY.

[mhays]

Yes, the term "American" doesn't have to mean the US. It's shorthand, and I'm guilty of using it that way too. We're the United States, IN and PART OF America.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by JManc

There is none. New York is the biggest city and the biggest magnet for arts and culture but its impact is pretty limited overall. The US is too big with enough large population centers where one city is not the center of culture like London is to the UK.

The only other city that comes close is LA. Besides that, none of the other are even remotely comparable to the impact New York has on culture.

I'll agree that the US doesn't have a culture capital, but to say that NYC's influence is limited is impact is just hilarious

[JManc]

Originally Posted by MAC123

The only other city that comes close is LA. Besides that, none of the other are even remotely comparable to the impact New York has on culture.

I'll agree that the US doesn't have a culture capital, but to say that NYC's influence is limited is impact is just hilarious

You contradict yourself; on one hand, you agree that the US does not have a culture capital but 'laugh' at the notion that New York's influence is limited. Again, the US is far too big and regionalized for New York to dominate US culture in the way Paris does for France.

[Wigs]

In my mind, NY has always been the cultural capital, with LA and Chicago being 2 and 3, although some might bicker over which is which

In Canada it's Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. Montreal might have the oldest still-existing history, and might be the best dressed of all. Certainly, Montreal has the cleanest subways/mass transit of all in North America

[dave8721]

For the 20th Century at least the un-disputed kings of influence in culture were :
"High" culture and the arts: New York
"Pop" culture: Los Angeles

LA's reign over pop culture has been eroding but it is still #1.

For example, in the 20th Century regional accents all began to subside and get replaced with the more generic US accent. They were replaced with how people talk in California because that's where pop culture (movies, TV, music...etc) were all coming from, especially post WW2 through the 1990s.

[SIGSEGV]

It's a tie between Liberty City and Los Santos

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by dave8721

For the 20th Century at least the un-disputed kings of influence in culture were :
"High" culture and the arts: New York
"Pop" culture: Los Angeles

LA's reign over pop culture has been eroding but it is still #1.

For example, in the 20th Century regional accents all began to subside and get replaced with the more generic US accent. They were replaced with how people talk in California because that's where pop culture (movies, TV, music...etc) were all coming from, especially post WW2 through the 1990s.

The advent of social media and the creator economy has upended pop culture to the extent that it’s driven more by what people are talking about, what has shock value, what will generate clicks, likes, comments, and subscriptions. Content isn’t really exported and consumed in “take-it-or-leave-it” fashion anymore so much as it is generated and reacted to.

NYC also isn’t leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to “high culture,” unless it’s live theater or modern art we’re talking about. It just has it in greater quantities.

[Quixote]

Is New York Turning Into Los Angeles?

Quintessentially Californian institutions are popping up all over Manhattan as New Yorkers embrace sound baths, mocktails and legal marijuana.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/s...-new-york.html

[Comrade]

Athens, Georgia.

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by mavillav

Greetings everyone, as a foreigner I have a different perception of American culture mm... every time I use the demonym of the USA in English it gives me a strange feeling because being Ecuadorian I consider myself American, but that's something else.

Somehow one man ended up having two continents named after him, and technically, we ought to be named The United States of North America. Various Central American countries did unite under one flag a few times, under the names United Provinces of Central America, The Federal Republic of Central America, etc.

There is no doubt that the US during the 20th century had an important generation of culture, unfortunately in the 21st century it has declined significantly and has lost its identity.

This has happened for a variety of reasons. The phones have shattered the gatekeeping of the Los Angeles-based movie studios and record companies.

Youth culture, specifically, was channeled through music for 50+ years, since it was too expensive for the studios to shoot more than a handful of movies each year that appealed only to 13-23 year-olds. The collapse of the record business, FM/college radio, and MTV has been disastrous for traditional American-born musical forms like jazz, blues, and rock & roll. It is becoming hard to hear American music played by Americans. You now have to go on a cruise ship to hear foreigners play American music.

The majority of distinctly "American" music came out of the cities along the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes, not the coasts. Most know that blues and jazz came from these areas, but so did funk and what is now called techno or house music.

The first funk recordings were made by James Brown in Cincinnati, OH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEtXoVHjnpk

Here is the building where the above recording was made:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1443...7i16384!8i8192

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Athens, Georgia.

Athens, Ohio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UcWcykKAag

[bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Athens, Georgia.

For a small Southern College town they sure have given us a lot of Musical Culture!

[ocman]

NYC would make the historical case. Los Angeles would make the contemporary case.

LA has always had the music industry, pop culture, lifestyle, film/tv, Hollywood stuff, sports dominance. And even that alone is undercutting LA's growing cultural heft. Especially because it's become formidable in the “high arts” as well, having built large, important art collections and institutions in very short order.

Add to that the frenzy of cultural institutions being built today and the fact that so many blue chip artists work, live or were educated in LA, due to city’s exceptional collection of art schools. , There’s the common refrain that now art is made in LA and sold in NYC.

Let’s also add the rise of LA Philharmonic to the "most important orchestra in America” according to the New York Times. New York recently poached Gustavo Dudamel from LA to great fanfare hoping to emulate LA's success. LA Phil’s ascent mirrors that of the city’s sudden establishment onto the art scene

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by dave8721

For the 20th Century at least the un-disputed kings of influence in culture were :
"High" culture and the arts: New York
"Pop" culture: Los Angeles

LA's reign over pop culture has been eroding but it is still #1.

For example, in the 20th Century regional accents all began to subside and get replaced with the more generic US accent. They were replaced with how people talk in California because that's where pop culture (movies, TV, music...etc) were all coming from, especially post WW2 through the 1990s.

Not eroding at all. LA is the king American city on social media.
To go along with all the hollywood and entertainment stuff.
Social media has made la bigger/more global actually.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by dave8721

For example, in the 20th Century regional accents all began to subside and get replaced with the more generic US accent. They were replaced with how people talk in California because that's where pop culture (movies, TV, music...etc) were all coming from, especially post WW2 through the 1990s.

Actually, this accent came from the Midwest. The generic California accent is basically a Midwest.

[mavillav]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Somehow one man ended up having two continents named after him, and technically, we ought to be named The United States of North America. Various Central American countries did unite under one flag a few times, under the names United Provinces of Central America, The Federal Republic of Central America, etc.

The name America and the demonym "Americano / American" is important for Latin Americans because Vespucci was first part of one of the Columbus expeditions sponsored by the kings of Spain and then by Portugal. As heirs to those old empires, that name is an important part of our identity, that´s why we considered ourselves American.

just said... that is another history


on the main topic of the thread, NY and LA have a major relevant when it comes to spreading the US culture to the rest of the world

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Quixote

Is New York Turning Into Los Angeles?

Quintessentially Californian institutions are popping up all over Manhattan as New Yorkers embrace sound baths, mocktails and legal marijuana.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/s...-new-york.html

I think this is more like acknowledgement that bicoastal rich folks like the same general stuff, and the cultural differences between coastal elites are pretty slim these days. The weather, scenery and built form might be different, but is East Hampton really that different from Malibu, or Pacific Palisades that different from the West Village? Both are full of the stock stereotypes of both coasts and the things that distinguish them from supposedly "real America" - good bagels, weird spiritual practices, fancy dogs, squash courts, etc.

[Pioneer]

New York, then Chicago, then LA.