I've thought a lot about this myself, as a musician and lover of art and music. I live in a mid-sized Midwestern town, where even Chicago would be a step up culturally. But I've thought about what it would be like for me to live in "Chicago" with a spouse and family. It would probably mean living in a suburb, spending a great deal of time in a car, and having neither the time nor the energy to go into the city for a concert or museum very often.
And the suburbs are yet another 2 orders of magnitude below my little town.
I've probably attended the Chicago Symphony more times than the average person who refers to their home as "Chicago." As for my town, if I want to play music or attend the Symphony with my kids, we're 10 minutes away.
And while it's true that great artists and musicians move to the metropolitan centers, they also move back out, in droves, because only a tiny fraction can survive the scene, much less prosper. I play in a band with some of them.
This is all without denying the obvious cultural role of the great cities. Thank you for bebop. ;-)
And the suburbs are yet another 2 orders of magnitude below my little town.
I've probably attended the Chicago Symphony more times than the average person who refers to their home as "Chicago." As for my town, if I want to play music or attend the Symphony with my kids, we're 10 minutes away.
And while it's true that great artists and musicians move to the metropolitan centers, they also move back out, in droves, because only a tiny fraction can survive the scene, much less prosper. I play in a band with some of them.
This is all without denying the obvious cultural role of the great cities. Thank you for bebop. ;-)