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This is really tough. I can't even pick. L.A. has the biggest cultural influence, NYC has the biggest financial influence.
L.A. is losing that cultural influence to a lot of other towns (LA is now filmed more than CA). NYC doesn't seem to ever slow down, but after the financial collapse I don't know if a lot of people are going to continue looking at Wall Street for their futures.
Plus the L.A. culture seems stale, maybe that's why things are migrating out of it for more culture. After watching some of the shows based out of there now, it's the same cliche cheesy "beautiful girl behind the bar" programming that has been going on since the late 90s. They need a new model or Hollywood is gonna sink.
NYC is "too expensive" at every turn. People are moving here from both cities pretty rapidly but the NY'ers are the ones that make it seem like they simply couldn't stay there anymore. People from L.A. are usually attached to Hollywood and just choose to live here because of the filming and the culture (ironically enough).
This is really tough. I can't even pick. L.A. has the biggest cultural influence, NYC has the biggest financial influence.
L.A. is losing that cultural influence to a lot of other towns (LA is now filmed more than CA). NYC doesn't seem to ever slow down, but after the financial collapse I don't know if a lot of people are going to continue looking at Wall Street for their futures.
Plus the L.A. culture seems stale, maybe that's why things are migrating out of it for more culture. After watching some of the shows based out of there now, it's the same cliche cheesy "beautiful girl behind the bar" programming that has been going on since the late 90s. They need a new model or Hollywood is gonna sink.
NYC is "too expensive" at every turn. People are moving here from both cities pretty rapidly but the NY'ers are the ones that make it seem like they simply couldn't stay there anymore. People from L.A. are usually attached to Hollywood and just choose to live here because of the filming and the culture (ironically enough).
There is so much wrong with this post.
Most sitcoms based out of LA are not "beautiful girl behind the bar" - The Office, Parks and Rec, Community, Last Man on Earth, Modern Family, Always Sunny in Philadelphia - all of them are filmed here in LA. I honestly have no idea what you are talking about with this - do you have any examples? All I can think of is 2 Broke Girls, which is probably filmed in LA on a set. In fact, I think most of the really terrible sitcom pilots over the last few years (read: multi-camera sitcoms) have been produced in NYC.
The LA culture you are speaking of is the culture that has been packaged for middle America, it really does not speak for the kinds of cultural happenings that are actually going on here:
A strong and easily identifiable indie music scene based around venues like The Smell, Bootleg Hifi, Church on York, and sometimes The Echo/Echoplex and distributed through labels like Burger Records (Burgerama in OC) and promoted through the various college radio stations that dot the landscape.
A diverse hip hop scene that produces underground favorites as well as guys like Kendrick Lamar that have busted through into the mainstream.
I don't know much about EDM, but I do know that LA has one of the strongest scenes in the country.
The country's best street art scene and more artists per capita than any other city
Of course surfing and skating is still holding strong
A burgeoning foodie scene, as well as one of the top street/ethnic food scenes in the country.
Sure, I agree mainstream "Hollywood" culture has become stale - And along with it the corporate music scene centered on the Sunset Strip has wilted away. But that represents about 1/10 of what Los Angeles and Southern California are all about.
There is a reason that many Angelenos would much rather watch a screening in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery or at Cinefamily at Silent Movie Theatre than be in line for the next big blockbuster. Or catch improv and other comedy shows at places like UCB and Nerdmelt as opposed to the big corporate comedy clubs like The Comedy Store. Or watch a show at The Echo instead of The Viper Room. And then the beauty of a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles is that there are still millions of people that do like the more mainstream culture, will catch blockbusters, prefer dumb comedy like Dane Cook, and would rather watch Steel Panther than the Tijuana Panthers. In Los Angeles, there is something for everyone.
And I think NYC probably has more influence on the country. And just like LA, as a megacity it has its sterilized culture that is presented to Middle America. I've never lived there, but I would imagine that there is actually a very nuanced culture that everyday NYers experience and contribute to on a daily basis, but folks in Peoria, IL are in no way clued into.
It's not just NYC=Wall Street/Sex in the City, LA=faded Hollywood glitz and glamour. Too many basics here on C-D (and in the world)!
I am not from nor have I ever been to L.A. so I couldn't comment on what it is like to live in L.A. - I posed that L.A. has been the manufacturer for culture we see across the USA. I once abbreviated L.A. culture to mean the mass media that we see coming from Hollywood to the USA, and it was in error.
Also, beautiful girl behind the bar was very much a placement for a very played out routine: slapstick / sex comedy involving hot women. When I made the comment, I was thinking of Lip Sync Battle in particular.
The discussion is the influence in which these two cities have on the nation - well, that's the influence that everybody perceives. It's like saying "What has a better party scene, New Orleans or Denver?" Well where are people's minds going to go?! Denver has more to offer than pot, NOLA has more to offer than booze ... but that's what's gonna dominate the discussion.
I think NYC was more influential in the 19th and into part of the 20th century but L.A. was more influential for most of the 20th century. Now they are about the same.
New York has greater everything. CA is going bankrupt and people are moving out.
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