I’ve begun to rethink my research’s focus.<\/p>\n
Growing up in San Jos\u00e9<\/span>, I was often upset by how hard local music <\/span>seemed to be<\/span> so difficult to<\/span> come by. Most people listened to rock, pop, hip hop, and country\u2013the kind of top-50 music you stuff you could not avoid on the radio if you tried, <\/span>and no one I knew could be bothered to branch out<\/span>.<\/span> For those <\/span>middle and high school kids <\/span>who were interested, t<\/span>he big thing was to see bands play in the party room in the back of the Nickel City arcade. <\/span>Of course, by the time I finally got in on it, it was already getting shut down (dancing was not allowed at my first show)<\/span>. My brother and I once drove as far as <\/span>Cupertino<\/span> just<\/span> to see a band from our own school.<\/span><\/p>\n I <\/span>always figured that this impression of scarcity was a result of my own inexperience, <\/span>but since I have come back to town, sat down, and directly applied myself to seek out music in the city, I have come to rethink that. Through four weeks in San Jos\u00e9, and I have only been to one show in the city. On top of that, in <\/span>the entirety of <\/span>Gimme Something Better<\/i><\/span>, a<\/span> book <\/span>by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor<\/span> on the history of punk rock in the Bay Area, San Jos\u00e9 is not mentioned a single tim<\/span>e<\/span> while<\/span> the south bay is only <\/span>referred to twice, essentially to say that nothing was happening there. <\/span><\/p>\n This seems to remain the case; I’ve been able to find two shows in town (one of them 21+), and most of those musicians I have managed to see have been playing in San Francisco and Santa Cruz. The independent music and art festival, SADFEST 2KX5, coming up towards the end of May will take place over one night in Dublin, CA, and two in San Jos\u00e9, yet <\/span>only <\/span>three<\/span> of the twenty-eight bands announced are actually from the city. Compare this to any given night in Olympia, where there’s likely to be a handful of shows featuring plenty of locals. San Jos\u00e9 is the tenth largest city in the United States, with a population of just under a million, <\/span>y<\/span>et San Francisco (pop. 837K), <\/span>Seattle (652K), <\/span>Portland (609K),<\/span> Oakland (406K), Berkeley (117K), Santa Cruz (63K), and Olympia (48K) all have much more impressive music scenes and <\/span>musical<\/span> histories. <\/span>The<\/span> question <\/span>I<\/span> inevitably have to ask is why is there so little music in San Jos\u00e9, <\/span>especially for a city its size.<\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span>‘ve been considering and researching a number of factors that might contribute to this. For one thing, San Jos<\/span>\u00e9 <\/span>is a very big city (the tenth largest in the country), <\/span>which may have a<\/span> suffocating <\/span>effect<\/span> for would-be artists. For another, the layout and architecture of the city can feel very homogenous and uncompelling, which may impact <\/span>its artistic psyche. Some of the people I have interviewed so far have pegged the lack of venues in recent years, which may be linked to a shift in population as the computer industry continues to draw in <\/span>wealthy tech-types who’s interests\u2013and money\u2013may be oriented towards night club types of places. Wealth in general may be a factor, considering that San Jos<\/span>\u00e9 <\/span>has the most disposable income per household among large cities (population>500K) in the United States. Then again, some of these characteristics are recent developments. San Francisco has historically dominated San Jos<\/span>\u00e9, <\/span>and with their renowned <\/span>artistic and liberal reputations, San Francisco and Berkeley may act as vacuums or magnets that draw all the artistic people away from the south bay.<\/span><\/p>\n I <\/span>will be addressing each of these ideas in more detail in upcoming posts. I regret that I have not been keeping up with my website. Between my car getting wrecked and an extensive series of complications and let-downs associated with that; trying to make sure that I don’t end up homeless again this Summer from two states away and a series of complication and let-downs associated with that; trying to actually get out and see music and a series of complications and let-downs associated with that; coming back to live with my parents and series of frustrations and complications associated with that; nursing and running errands for my dad, losing both of my cameras; and getting banged up a bunch since skateboarding has been my soul mode of transportation, my board is falling to pieces and the sidewalks in San Jos<\/span>\u00e9 <\/span>are trash… I have been <\/span>feeling<\/span> very overwhelmed and very disappointed. <\/span>I’m out of my funk now though. I’ve got a car and a camera to use and a list of upcoming shows and festivals, and I’m going to be recording interviews and music. I’m back in it!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve begun to rethink my research’s focus. Growing up in San José, I was often upset by how hard local music seemed to be so difficult to come by. Most people listened to rock, pop, hip hop, and country–the kind of top-50 music you stuff you could not avoid on the radio if you tried, … Continue reading Redirection? – Old Issues; New Questions<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1075,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[],"tags":[99],"geo":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1075"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}