"Cultural exporter": NYC vs LA (best, people, Boston)
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Good addition Bajan. Had you not mentioned that, it would've evaded my mind altogether. I would have never thought of Salsa.
This city has given the world several trends, one of the less publicized ones like graffiti on train cars back in the day. People from far away countries have come to NYC for the sole purpose of tagging our subway cars before.
I have to disagree with po-boy--I think it's L.A. that quietly influences things in many aspects of life with little recognition. Most assume its influence begins and ends with the movie industry, but it goes way deeper than that.
I saw a demeaning blog the other day titled "The shuttle goes Hollywood". All I thought was "no, the shuttle goes home. It was built here". It's amazing how many people have no clue of this. If the thing had been built in NYC, it'd be known today as the New York City Space Shuttle.
Another area Los Angeles is very strong in: vehicle design
Many, many car companies have design studios in the L.A. area. If New York gets fashion, then L.A. gets cars
As of 2006:
BMW: Designworks USA - Newbury Park, CA
Ford: California Advanced Product Creation - Irvine, CA
General Motors: General Motors Advanced Design, California - North Hollywood, CA
Honda Research & Development, Los Angeles Center - Torrance, CA
Hyundai & Kia Design and Technical Center - Irvine, CA
Isuzu Motors America Design - Cerritos, CA
Mazda Research and Development - Irvine, CA
Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design of North America - Irvine, CA
Mitsubishi Research & Design of North America - Cypress, CA
Toyota: Calty Design Research - Newport Beach, CA
Volkswagen/Audi Design Center, CA - Newport Beach, cA
Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center - Camarillo, CA
Also, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, around half of the world's current auto designers graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, though I wonder where they get that number.
I'm not sure how many of these design studios make cars only for the North American market and how "export" the designs to other parts of the world, but I'm sure some of each.
Good addition Bajan. Had you not mentioned that, it would've evaded my mind altogether. I would have never thought of Salsa.
Yeah...
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Salsa emerged from New York City in the mid 1970s, spread throughout Latin America and the Western Hemisphere.[13] However, the music had already been going strong in the city for several decades prior to the use of the label salsa. New York had been a center of Cuban-style dance music since the 1940s, when landmark innovations by Machito's Afro-Cubans helped usher in the mambo era. Tito Puente worked for a time in the Afro-Cubans before starting up his own successful band. By the early 1950s, there were three very popular mambo big bands in New York: Machito and his Afro-Cubans, Tito Puente, and Tito RodrÃguez.
...and it's gone on to strongly influence the rest of Latin America. Reggaetone is having a similar impact now on many of the young Hispanics in the Southwest and West.
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Reggaeton, the hip-hop sung in Spanish and some English that is laced with Caribbean rhythms and has fanned out from Puerto Rico, has reached critical mass in the past year by conquering Los Angeles County, home to the nation's largest Latino population. It is not only heard in Latino nightclubs and on Latino radio, but also reaches English-language stations and hip-hop clubs and extends to weddings and bar mitzvahs.
I think it's L.A. that quietly influences things in many aspects of life with sometimes little recognition. Most assume its influence begins and ends with the movie industry. I saw a demeaning blog the other day titled "The shuttle goes Hollywood". All I thought was "no, the shuttle goes home. It was built here".
Not only that, but it came nowhere near Hollywood.
It's 2012 and I think calling LA a cultural exporter for the US is misleading. NYC is just as popular in Hollywood at this point that includes both film and television. It's also a much more influential player on the worlds fashion and tourism.
What others around the world see is NYC the city and how we live our life in the big city. Not to mention 47% of Hollywood's studios are based in NYC compared to 18% for LA, they only have Disney.
kidphilly brings up a legitimate point about literature. Publishers for American literature have their largest concentration here. Then there is also the news, media, and stock markets.
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Originally Posted by BLAXTOR
It is misleading. LA isn't the only place they're seeing. I would say at this point just as many films show off NYC as they do LA. Same thing applies for television shows and every year I see more of it. Naturally LA takes it on this but it's a lot closer than its given credit for.
Fashion brands like echo, aeropostale, Ann Taylor, Barney's New York, Bloomingdale's, Brooks Brothers, Calvin Klein, Century 21, Club Monaco, Coach, DKNY, J&R, J. Crew, Kenneth Cole, Liz Claiborne, Macy's, Michael Kors, Paul Stuart, Polo, Revlon, Rocawear, SAKS Fifth Avenue, Sean John, Steve Madden, Warnaco are all based here. It's already been pointed out but NYC's much better at runway than LA too.
Media companies like ABC, Associated Press, CBS, Conde Nast, DC Comics, Marvel Entertainment, Food Network, Granite Broadcasting, HBO, MTV, New York Times, New Young Broadcasting, Prometheus Global Media, Showtime Networks, Sony Entertainment America, Time Warner, Universal Music Group, Viacom, Warner Music Group.
Publication companies like Ziff Davis, Scholastic, The Princeton Review, Perseus Books Group, NBM Publishing, Baen Books, Random House, Charles Scribner's Sons, Revisionist Press, Reynal & Hitchcock, Rinehart & Company, Riverhead Books, Roc Books, Harper Perennial, HarperCollins, Hyperion Books, Humana Press, Hippocrene Books, Slipstream Magazine, Sterling Publishing, South End Press, Samuel French, Inc., Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Ugly Duckling Presse, Lantern Books, Legas, McGraw-Hill, Times Books, Viking Press, Centaur Press, Coral Press, Judaica Press, J&L Books, etc.
Financial institutions and stock exchanges like S&P, Dow Jones & Company, American Express, Master Card, NASDAQ, NYSE, Goldman Sachs, Cowen Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, etc.
I won't even get into food and drinks.
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Originally Posted by BLAXTOR
Good god man. What is with your gripe for finance? Have you never seen publications by American Express or Master Card? Do you not watch the news? (Bernie Madoff) Do you not have an app for stocks on your phone? Have you never watched the morning stock market reports on CNN? Do you not see the books, studies, professions, schools, departments designed just for the financial markets? Have you completely stopped paying attention to banks and their influence for home owners, people on loans, etc? Seriously do you not read any financial books or anything? Finance isn't a cultural aspect but NYC still manages to turn it into one. You've never heard of Alan Greenspan? Ever watched the movie "Wall Street" or "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"?
Ok finance aside, there's still sports, food, drinks (Pepsi), Statue of Liberty, architecture, media, fashion, film, lifestyle, leisure, literature, culture, and New Years Eve.
You're going off on a tangent Blaxtor. You and many people are confusing the topic. NYC is known as a cultural exporter and a starter of many trends, but you're really casting a wide net, basically just listing companies headquartered in NYC or things associated with NYC, which doesn't always justify the companies/things as "cultural." E.g. McDonalds's in headquartered in Chicago, but it started in SoCal, as did the popularization of fast food and drive-thru's. Many aerospace companies have moved their headquarters from LA, but aerospace still has strong identification with SoCal, especially now with SpaceX, Mars Rover from JPL/CalTech, and Spaceshuttle Endeavor.
And are we really listing the stock market and financial institutions as a "cultural export?" C'mon. No matter how you want to slice it, finance is not a "cultural export." Also, instead of just listing publishing companies, which means nothing (but yes, NYC dominates publishing), it would be more effective to list specific significant books from those publishers (i.e. Charles Scribner's Sons published "The Great Gatsby;" Charles Scribner's Sons is not a cultural export, "The Great Gatsby," and Fitzgerald, are).
Lastly, the argument that Hollywood studios are owned by these giant conglomerates is flawed. A studio is just one of the many diversified subsidiaries of these faceless corporations, but it still operates a separate business entity, each with its own headquarters. The parent companies in NYC don't run the creative or even the day-to-day business operations of these studios. The creative, operational, historical, and cultural aspects of these movie studios are dominated by LA; LA exported the entertainment/"Hollywood" culture. And just in case people forget, these studios already existed in LA long before these conglomerates came in.
And please get into food and drinks. I would like to hear the significant and cultural exports/trends of NYC.
LA is definitely the leading cultural exporter (for better or worse) in the US, closely followed by NYC.
-Entertainment - film, television, music, video games.
-Hip-hop started in NYC, but gangster rap was popularized by LA.
-Literary culture - often overlooked and far too often underestimated - Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, Ray Bradbury, Joan Didion, John Fante, Charles Bukowski, Ross Macdonald, and many more all had a cultural impact.
-Noir culture
-Fashion - High fashion (catwalk stuff) belongs to NYC, but casual fashion trends is dominated by LA (and really California as a whole). Premium denim (designer jeans), swimwear, surfwear, skatewear started in LA too.
-Skate culture was started in LA.
-Surf culture was started in LA/SoCal (via Hawaii).
-Car culture - going back to the 50's and 60's with the hot rods and muscle cars. Lowriders and lowrider culture was formed in LA, as well as the import/tuner car culture, drifting, and street/drag racing. LA/SoCal popularized freeways.
-Gang culture (big and notorious gangs like Bloods, Crips, MS-13, Hells Angels, etc)
-Porn and Playboy is a LA thing.
-Modern theme parks, with Disneyland starting the rise of theme parks and a transition from general amusement parks.
-"Valley Girls" speech, or "Valspeak," surf slang, skate slang have contributed the the American language and lexicon.
Another area Los Angeles is very strong in: vehicle design
Many, many car companies have design studios in the L.A. area. If New York gets fashion, then L.A. gets cars
As of 2006:
BMW: Designworks USA - Newbury Park, CA
Ford: California Advanced Product Creation - Irvine, CA
General Motors: General Motors Advanced Design, California - North Hollywood, CA
Honda Research & Development, Los Angeles Center - Torrance, CA
Hyundai & Kia Design and Technical Center - Irvine, CA
Isuzu Motors America Design - Cerritos, CA
Mazda Research and Development - Irvine, CA
Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design of North America - Irvine, CA
Mitsubishi Research & Design of North America - Cypress, CA
Toyota: Calty Design Research - Newport Beach, CA
Volkswagen/Audi Design Center, CA - Newport Beach, cA
Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center - Camarillo, CA
Also, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, around half of the world's current auto designers graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, though I wonder where they get that number.
I'm not sure how many of these design studios make cars only for the North American market and how "export" the designs to other parts of the world, but I'm sure some of each.
Hip-hop started in NYC, but gangster rap was popularized by LA.
I'm a fan of all types of music, but you've gotta admit that NYC holds a special place in the hearts of many Hip Hop enthusiasts. It's the first city that comes to mind when you utter the words "Hip Hop," "breakdancing," "MCing," "DJing" or "grafitti," and I would say that New Orleans is the only other city that has such a strong association with an art form.
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