Quite a few cites in the U.S. are known for music

Detroit

Philly.
Bakersfield.
Athens, Ga.

Macon GA
Brooklyn NY

Samspade,  I agree with that to an extent. Still I think the local talent will influence the local youngsters. Dad had hundreds of albums and mom was plugged into the top 40 radio. I heard this stuff my whole life, still it was actually seeing live music that played a major influence on me wanting to play. Actually seeing the music coming from the musicians, feeling the sound and picking up on the audience a  visceral affect that is not recordable, regardless of the media. Oh and Elvis movies “o)

Philly Philly Philly

Surprised that no one has mentioned Chicago, the home of Chess Records and electric blues.

Seattle ? Maybe during Nirvana et al.

CL ads describe a "musical wasteland" or "musical desert" nowadays...and there's really few places to play or develop.

Fast rising real estate prices and gentrification have been taking a toll.

And then there are the poor conduct and bad attitudes of the musicians in general.

It has been a land of screamo singers and heavy metal and rehashed blues and bands that seek players under 21 only.

Clearly generated from the "gamer" generation with poor social skills.

There's been a hip hop success or two, and maybe a pop success, but a Music City ?

That implies a Vibrant Active music scene.... full of all sorts of real talent. Nope.

There is some moderate talent here but not worthy of a Music City.

Not in this Century.

So far !

Madison in the 1960's was a great origin city for music. These days, it's a great destination city, lots of smaller and miid-size venues, along with larger concert halls, theaters, an arena, and big student population. But the local scene is pretty much just that, local. There is talent, but not a lot of energy, no one seems on the verge of busting out, like the old days when Steve Miller, Ben Sidran, Ken Adamany (who went on to manage Cheap Trick), Tracy Nelson and others were all part of a hoppin' local scene.

Dwight Yoakam's show is a run-down of the Bakersfield sound and reaching into the LA scene.

Pretty interesting hearing the stories and flow as he tells it on stage.

I was a student living in Madison, back then.  Also working for Columbia Records as a college rep (world's greatest part-time job -- $15/week plus all the free records and concert tickets I wanted, and an expense account!).  Our residence was a ground floor student tenement flat in the Miffland neighborhood.  It was not a riot, except maybe a police riot, an overreaction to the first Mifflin Street block party -- I remember armored police vehicles patrolling the street, and we found spent tear gas canisters on our front porch each morning.  We learned to huddle in the bathroom, with the shower running cold water, to filter the tear gas particles out of the air that penetrated into our place through the drafty windows. As they say, "dems was da days!"  

What part of Seattle do you live?

I lived there during the 90s. Back then there was a lot of creative energy and supportive audiences and the Rocket music newspaper documenting it all.

Nirvana came out of Aberdeen 100 miles south of Seattle and went worldwide, inspiring an explosion of copycat and knockoff bands.

The scene was different then. Life was cheaper for artists and I remember going to an open mic in an old hotel that featured a mic, a VibroKing, and seating for at least 50 in a long hall with no distractions. There were more clubs for live playing. It's said Nirvana played there many times.

Then a big earthquake hit. It caused the old hotel to end the open mic. Rumor had it that another key open mic was closed right after.

Then Cobain passed.

The Rocket folded.

"Musical wasteland" is a quote from a Craigslist ad from last month.

But I already knew that.

Also there are multiple CL ads lamenting how advertisers don't even respond to their own ads, and if they do, hardly anything ever comes from it.

I've watched Seattle from Bellevue. Bellevue has changed tremendously.

It was only notable for offering a weekly acoustic open mic in a mall.

I wouldn't be caught dead playing acoustic. I was getting all ready to hit the Seattle hotel scene...then the earthquake.

A music scene needs "infrastructure"...places to play, places to practice, people to meet.

Now, there is a TON of money in Bellevue and Seattle looking north.

And there's a TON of people watching TV, playing on the internet, and playing games.

Karaoke took over.

But there are more music ads in the last couple of years. And a lot of new youngish people moving in, generally around the Internet Giants.

So interest is rising but...almost no one has a decent place to play.

In Calif in the 70s, I remember a lot of neighborhoods had some kids playing in a garage at some point.

It's not that way here.

Very few decent places to play too.

Very limited "infrastructure".

And the audiences are busy watching TV or playing computer games.

I can't blame them really.

Most of the bands I've seen were of poor quality and painfully loud.

I'd rather watch TV too !

One or two acts came out of Kansas City.

We used to play Famous Dave's in Calhoun Square at Lake and Hennepin in Minneapolis (now closed I believe) and the Minnesota Music Cafe in St Paul. A couple of times we were at the St Paul location I was told that Prince's band was in the crowd; it was supposedly his hangout (don't know if that's true).

Isley Brothers were the pride of Teaneck, NJ.  Their record label was T-Neck (we distributed it in the 1970's).

And, of course, my favorite Cleveland record ......