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And all those metro areas have a more compelling case than Atlanta when it comes to comparing them to Chicago tbh, especially from an economic standpoint.
This whole argument about culture and how it dominates is so subjective. Social media is not real life (it’s fragmented, full of malcontents, and lots of people navel-gazing), rep points aren’t money, everyone doesn’t listen to hip-hop music (and emulation doesn’t mean adulation, it’s a business, plus there are plenty of people under 30 don’t listen to it in spite of its dominance), everyone doesn’t care about reality television. The pop culture landscape is so fragmented nowadays, so one person’s experience is going to be totally different from another. Atlanta is no slouch by any means, but it’s definitely not top 5 in terms of name recognition. I’d say it’s Top 10, but not Top 5. And that’s no slight to ATL, no matter how much you think it is. You seem to be pressed and bothered that everyone isn’t agreeing with you, or don’t see it the same way as you do. You’re just as much in a bubble as much as the posters you accuse of being in one tbh…things are way too fragmented nowadays thanks to technology.
Man, I have been balanced with those posters. I grant Chicago is superior sports city. And is a home city to the nation’s first black President. An iconic skyline etc But they aren’t engaging the finer points of my posts, just repeating how unbelievable it is. That’s annoying.
And I don’t mind if you think it isn’t top 5, that’s fine. It depends on what you emphasize, history or present imo.
As far as social media not being real life, I don’t know what that means. People say it a lot to try to diminish it, but it is literally just an extension of social life. The amount of time and energy people invest in it suggests it is important to the majority of people under 40. And not only that, companies pour lots of money into marketing on social media. You don’t have to like that, but it is what it is.
I feel like a lot of people on here try to be anti-cool or anti-mainstream, that could be disconnect. There are literally posters saying Atlanta doesn’t dominate hip-hop association, saying NYC (my birthplace) has a stronger association with it present say. This is just out of touch and you know it.
And you don’t have to listen to hip hop to know what im talking about. Hip hop is pop now and it permeates all forms of media in a way that others don’t. If you aren’t a media person, you probably shouldn’t be arguing in this thread.
Seems to me that you're weighting music too heavily in your algorithm. There are two cities in Tier 4, and at least one in Tier 5, that I would say have as strong a brand or name recognition as those two.
Several posters upthread have attested to the durability of Detroit's association with automobiles — and via Motown, it too has a musical rep as well. If Nashville and Austin belong in a Tier 3 all their own because of music, I'd say Detroit belongs in that tier with them. Dallas and Houston in Tier 4, and Denver as well, belong there because of their overall size and image.
But we don't say "Atlanta" when discussing hip-hop the way we say "Hollywood" when discussing movies, "Detroit" when discussing cars, "Silicon Valley" when discussing computer tech, or "Wall Street" when discussing finance.
Like jazz*, which has three, maybe four, cities whose names can be used to mark periods in its evolution — New Orleans, Kansas City, New York and (yes) LA — hip-hop has many hubs, and no one hub is so dominant that its name alone is synonymous with the genre the way Nashville is with country music.
*Edited to add: R&B also has multiple hubs, some geographic and some temporal. Philadelphia was to 1970s R&B what Motown was to the music in the '60s, and Memphis and New Orleans both birthed R&B styles that were uniquely their own and transcended the time boundaries.
Exactly. I don’t want to veer too far but I think even Philly may be more recognized than Atlanta. Liberty bell,
Constitution, cheese steaks. Those pop right off. I didn’t know Atlanta was the hip hop capital, not saying it isn’t just I didn’t know.
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