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hi im 19, im in arizona and im thinking about moving to Austin TX to study music in college, because i want to make it big in music its my dream, im a singer and guitar player, my my dream its make a band and be successful and famous.
but im not sure if Austin its the best option or its better LA, or NY or Nashville or where?? please help me :S:S:S
MY GENRES ARE ROCK, POP, BLUES AND RELATIVES
I think you should to go to NY to study music. The incredible experiences and stimulation that NY provides is unmatched. This will enrich your music by giving you great depth and character. Think big and for God's sake, develop some patience. You have to crawl before you can walk.
Hundreds of thousands have thought as you, and failed. I think they did so because they took the common path, not taking the time to develop their craft. Be one of few, not one of many.
Telling the truth can be dangerous business
Honest and popular don't go hand in hand
If you admit that you can play the accordion
No one'll hire you in a rock 'n' roll band...
Austin or Nashville would offer some possibilities. The 'industry' is pretty much dead, or going through rough times, so you'll need to self-market like crazy online, and you had better be as good as you can be.
That noted, session musicians are in demand (still) in Nashville, if you don't mind playing for $. A distant acquaintance of mine moved there in the late 90s, and he was very broke for a few years, but put a band together to play what he wanted to play, with the main goal of being seen, and after about 2 years he did start to get hired for session gigs - "I need a guitar track on X country song or another." And the stuff he was getting hired for wasn't his genre of music, but it brought in income and paid the bills.
Austin because of it's reputation and SxSW is another great place. Definitely helps if you're oriented towards americana, indie rock or alt-country. On a smaller scale, the Raleigh-Durham area pretty much is dominated by the same thing, there are tons of venues and good music schools, and two indie labels (Yep Roc and Merge) were founded and are headquartered here (Merge was founded by Superchunk, and more recently the top-10 success of Spoon and Arcade Fire has brought them major attention). As with Austin, the RDU area is overrun with local indie rock and americana acts, so there will be a lot of competition.
The big cities: NYC, LA, SF would offer you a lot of eclectic culture that would definitely be an influence. There's tons going on, and a lot you could be exposed to, though it's been a while since the musical undergrounds in those cities have generated much of a buzz.
Chicago would be worth looking into - it has the big-city size and depth (like the above cities), but it also (primarily in the 90s, though still ongoing to some degree - Drag City and Touch & Go Records are there) was one of the major up-from-the-underground music cities in the US - right up there with Austin and Seattle. It was a real center of Wax Trax/Ministry industrial music, and the post-rock stuff that Tortoise and Sea & Cake specialized in, and some pop stuff as well (Urge Overkill) all came out of there, some punk (Big Black), plus tons of blues obviously, so there's always been a ton of stuff happening there.
austin is a music capital, nash is old time and doesnt hold much influence,la is hit and miss, either youre great and get noticed or ad erage and get drowned out by 100s of other ad erage bands, its not place to hone your skills.
Since the 1960s, Nashville has been the second biggest music production center in the U.S. As of 2006, Nashville's music industry is estimated to have a total economic impact of $6.4 billion per year and to contribute 19,000 jobs to the Nashville area.
austin is a music capital, nash is old time and doesnt hold much influence,la is hit and miss, either youre great and get noticed or ad erage and get drowned out by 100s of other ad erage bands, its not place to hone your skills.
I was scratching my head over that too. Today Nashville is the second largest music producing city in the country- only behind NYC, which is amazing given Nashville is a small fraction of NY's size. I grew up not far from Nashville and have been to Austin several times. The difference to me is that in Nashville, its all business. As in studios, mixing shops, music lawyers, writers, musicians, and so on. I remember the last time I was in Nashville I went to a bar and there were seriously at least 2-3 people sitting there writing musical scores- at the bar. There's definitely a lot of money tied up in the music biz in Nashville.
Austin's thing is more about live music and in my opinion the music scene is definitely more out in the open.
Portland OR is supposedly the Indie Capital of the world. I'd imagine Seattle has a similiar scene. You don't need to go to college to make it big. If your wanting to build a home recording studio theres some great places online to help you get started. If you want to play gigs, try and hook up with other bands around, or find different clubs/venues that typically play your style of music.
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