Cities With the Best Music Scenes

The Top Ten

1 London London London is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south eastern part of the island of Great Britain, London has been a major settlement for two millennia.

Queen, Stones, Police, Zeppelin, Placebo, Bowie, Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Radiohead, Elton John, Muse, etc. 90% of the greatest names in modern music hail from the you. K. Any more evidence?

yeh - Jiorl

2 Seattle Seattle Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington.

Some of the best music we have today originated out of Seattle. Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Heart, Hendrix, Mother Love Bone... All really talented artists.

Whilst I agree with London, Seattle must surely be an extremely close second... Nirvana & Pearl jam, amongst others, need I say anymore?

Hendrix, Cobain, Bing Crosby, Quincy Jones etc.

Many bands and great venues

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3 Chicago

All the great blues guys came from here

4 Nashville

I am voting for Nashville also because I lived there and it is just spilling over with music. Sadly, many people think it is all country but they have plenty of clubs, bands and infrastructure that caters to rock, alternative, metal, indie, acoustic, electronic, rap, etc etc. It has as much or more music industry infrastructure as New York or Los Angeles but it is only a fraction of the size, which makes the concentration of music-related things much higher. Nashville also has some of the nicest people I have ever met. Total strangers are often very friendly but they also have their buttholes like any other place, it is just friendlier overall than most places. And unlike Ny or LA, the people and musicians are much more likely to help you out despite the competitive nature of the business

The best music comes from Nashville. And the most recording does too. There is more recording going on in Nashville than anywhere else in the world. With the Ryman the Grand Ole Opry and so many recording studios there is always music to hear. Nashville is the home and stomping ground for many artists.

Live on the green

Country City - Maddox121

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5 Austin

Explosions in the Sky, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Bob Schneider, Stevie Nicks, The Police, Elvis Costello, Butthole Surfers, Spoon, Ghostland Observatory, Austin City Limits (Festival and show), SXSW, etc.

You simply cannot beat the mix of genre and quantity of talent in one single location. Amazing!

All you have to do is visit and you'll know why. Texas does it right!

I am thinking of moving there because Austin has one of the top yet most underrated music scenes in the country! I have lived in Nashville and L.A. And ohviously they are both amazing places to be a musician.

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6 Los Angeles Los Angeles

Capitol records, universal, sony, kcrw, hollywood bowl, wiltern, troubadour, wiltern, music box, orpheum, more venues, and the list of artists is actually insane so I won't even try.

Guns N' Roses, Metallica & Megadeth and so many other bands are from here! 🎵🎶

7 New York

NYC is defiantly number 1 or 2 along with London maybe LA - JC123

8 Berlin Berlin

"Die Ärzte", a famous German band was founded in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

9 Tokyo Tokyo

yes japan is the place where every kind of music is played like you'll get along with almost every1 there its the greatest and every rock band has been there - ballaboi17

nippon budokan, the largest arena in central tokyo japan. many foreign countries performed here and japanese bands perform their anniversaries here - ronluna

notice all english speaking bands including europeans go to the place called Tokyo Dome to perform their concerts - ronluna

Anime + Hatsune Miku

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10 San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California.

METALLIC DUH

The Contenders

11 Boston

Pixes, Cars, Aerosmith, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

12 Memphis

Rock n' Roll!

13 Manchester

The smiths, new order, joy division, stone roses, happy mondays, the hollies, the buzzcocks, doves, oasis, charlatans, bee gees, inspiral carpets, chemical brothers, morrissey, charlatans, elbow - harrylime

No other city in the world has hosted a scene as brilliant and talented as Manchester. Where would music be today without Joy Division, The Smiths, New Order, Buzzcocks, The Stone Roses, The Chemical Brothers, etc.? - mjgass

This city should definitely be in the top 10. It's one of the most amazing and influential music cities on the planet.
New Order The Smiths Joy Division Happy Mondays influenced alternative music as we know it today. And one of these bands are still going strong after 30 years in the business.

14 Detroit Detroit

Motown was one of the greatest music scenes in music history

15 Minneapolis

Home of Prince, Bob Dylan, Morris Day & The Time, The Jets, Flyte Tyme Recording Studios (now Minneapolis Media Institute), The Peterson Family (First Family of Jazz), Flim & the BB's, Bunkers Music Bar & Grill, The Dakota Restaurant & Jazz Club, and LOTS more great music has come out of Minneapolis!

16 Toronto Toronto Toronto is the most populous city in Canada, the provincial capital of Ontario, and the centre of the Greater Toronto Area, the most populous metropolitan area in Canada.

Rush, Neil Young, Anvil, The Band, Klaatu, Toronto, Alias, Death From Above 1979, Eidolon, I Mother Earth, Need I say more? Toronto is one of the most talented cities for music, same goes for many other parts of Canada!

17 New Orleans

I believe the people out here in NO support music to the fullest, we took a lost with katrina, but the city is full of life an a beautiful place to be an live.

Katrina might of damaged it but it should still be here - preachinpreach

18 Montréal
19 Omaha
20 Atlanta
21 Miami

Great music, electronic and rock, I see musicians almost everywhere I go in Miami, and they don't want to get rich or famous, they just want to play music, and that's what it should be about... Love the music scene

22 Melbourne

Get out of your North American head space, see the world and then visit Melbourne... Nothing more to say.

23 Paris Paris
24 Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 1,567,872 and more than 6 million in the seventh-largest metropolitan statistical area, as of 2016. Philadelphia is the economic and cultural anchor ...read more.
25 Liverpool

Does not matter what any other city does, EVER; Liverpool's impact will always be remembered.
Imagine checking out the club scene there in 1962!

26 Vancouver Vancouver
27 Kansas City

The birthplace of modern jazz. Need I say more? Charlie Bird Parker, Count Basie, Eminem, Pat Metheny, Benny Moten, Big Joe Turner, Burt Bacharach, Melissa Etheridge, Oleta Adams, Walter Brown, Jessica Harp, Pete Johnson, Jay McShann, Chely Wright, David Cook (American idol), Gene Clark (The Byrds), etc...

28 Milan
29 Girdler, Kentucky

Girdz & Door-Z, need I say more?

30 Stockholm Stockholm
31 Gothenburg
32 Santiago
33 Amsterdam Amsterdam

Dance capital of the Netherlands, country with the best DJs and dance producers of the world.
I.E. tiesto, Armin van Buuren, Afrojack, Fedde le Grand.

34 Karachi Karachi
35 Richmond

Municipal Waste; also home of Lamb of God and Gwar though I'm not a fan of those two.

36 Provo, Utah

Utah actually has musicians and bands everywhere! I'm suprised it's not even on the list

37 Las Vegas Las Vegas Las Vegas, officially the City of Las Vegas and often known simply as Vegas, is the 28th-most populated city in the United States, the most populated city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County.
38 Baltimore
39 Jacksonville
40 Leeds
41 Birmingham Birmingham

Black Sabbath and Judas PRiest! - SoldierOfFortune

42 Sweden Sweden Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. ...read more.
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