Notice any metros "dropping off the radar"?

[park123]

Did anyone notice that Boston for example is less of a big deal than perhaps 20 years ago? It's still a wealthy, large metro with amazing institutional assets, and has maybe the most polished urban core its size outside of Europe. But I don't know if it's just me, but I don't hear about Boston very much anymore. In the broader culture (outside of sports of course), and for that matter on this forum, where you would guess it would be pretty popular.

What changed? Any other metros like this? Casually looking back, I get the sense that Montreal was a lot more culturally prominent before the 2008 recession than after. Chicago also seems like it kind of went into a funk after 2008. I wonder why?

[BnaBreaker]

In the newest Godzilla film monsters destroy Boston instead of New York or LA or DC... so... that's something!

[dc_denizen]

The globalization of western culture has had an effect on the prominence of places like Chicago

For one, Hollywood is less interested in middle American stories and themes . Anything centered around a specific city is in less demand. The preference is for anodyne settings that can be digested by a less informed global audience . Even New York located stories are very fuzzy with the edge sawed off, compared to what was being produced 20 or 30 years ago

Ever notice how dominant British actors and accents (either RP or sort of working class) have become in movies ? Similar thing

This is IMO due to the legacy of European colonialism and the affinity for British aristocratic mores that it produced in many countries that are now big markets for western culture

In general American culture, outside of African American, has had to compete with a ‘commonwealth culture’ centered on the Uk but with outposts in Canada, Australia, nz etc.

[dc_denizen]

Also on this forum we have basically one person posting updates from Dc, a city that is growing and building all over the place. Meanwhile we can have fifty conversations about some random suburbs new high rise in certain other cities..

[DCReid]

Originally Posted by park123

Did anyone notice that Boston for example is less of a big deal than perhaps 20 years ago? It's still a wealthy, large metro with amazing institutional assets, and has maybe the most polished urban core its size outside of Europe. But I don't know if it's just me, but I don't hear about Boston very much anymore. In the broader culture (outside of sports of course), and for that matter on this forum, where you would guess it would be pretty popular.

What changed? Any other metros like this? Casually looking back, I get the sense that Montreal was a lot more culturally prominent before the 2008 recession than after. Chicago also seems like it kind of went into a funk after 2008. I wonder why?

Boston and Chicago are still big deals - Boston has universities and prominent biotech, Chicago unfortunately is more in the news for violence but still gets other press - compared with 20-30 years ago - Detroit and other other smaller midwest metros like Cleveland (but others like Columbus and Minneapolis are a little more prominent but can't challenge Chicago), Philly and other small eastern cities like Buffalo and Rochester, Memphis (in favor of Nashville being more prominent)...

[JManc]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Ever notice how dominant British actors and accents (either RP or sort of working class) have become in movies ? Similar thing

Game of Thrones would have been a LOT more interesting if the Lannisters sounded more like a family from suburban Dallas.

[dc_denizen]

^ or like a family of suburban southern English? Like the Dursleys? Would that be better?

Why does the new Star Wars have Brit rebels speaking with received pronunciation, except for the odd grotesque Scottish or ‘working class bloke’?

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Also on this forum we have basically one person posting updates from Dc, a city that is growing and building all over the place. Meanwhile we can have fifty conversations about some random suburbs new high rise in certain other cities..

Yep, that's it. It's 1776 and the US is being oppressed by the Commonwealth.

[park123]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

The globalization of western culture has had an effect on the prominence of places like Chicago

For one, Hollywood is less interested in middle American stories and themes . Anything centered around a specific city is in less demand. The preference is for anodyne settings that can be digested by a less informed global audience . Even New York located stories are very fuzzy with the edge sawed off, compared to what was being produced 20 or 30 years ago

Ever notice how dominant British actors and accents (either RP or sort of working class) have become in movies ? Similar thing

This is IMO due to the legacy of European colonialism and the affinity for British aristocratic mores that it produced in many countries that are now big markets for western culture

In general American culture, outside of African American, has had to compete with a ‘commonwealth culture’ centered on the Uk but with outposts in Canada, Australia, nz etc.

Hollywood and Netflix are only one part of the broader culture. And even there, if you look at Hollywood, I guess the biggest revenue regions would be something like:

USA
EU
China
Japan
... big drop
maybe Latin America?

Except for the EU, none of those regions are especially influenced by British culture. And it's not like Germans or Italians or wherever in the EU aren't familiar with American culture.

I guess the British accent thing in Hollywood is because Americans like British accents. I know I do.

[dc_denizen]

Well I don’t and I think Received Pronunciation and ‘working class bloke-ese’ in Star Wars or various other movies sounds ridiculous

And I don’t think Hollywood woke up one day saying you know what, Americans like British accents so let’s hire a bunch of Brit actors

More likely they were seeing a larger culture movement in play

[pj3000]

Re: Boston

Ben Affleck got drunk and Matt Damon isn’t cute anymore.

[JManc]

British actors(esses) have always been a staple in American TV and film and charcters in some sci-fi or some fantasy sound more compelling if they have British accents than if they sounded like they were from Cleveland. Going back to GoT, the actor who played Tyrion Lannister is from New Jersey and the actor to played Jamie Lannister is from Denmark...both used Brit accents for the show.

[xzmattzx]

People forgot that Hartford exists after the Whalers left town.

[llamaorama]

Seth MacFarlane has always represented New England in stuff, there's his character in the The Orville which is from Boston or Mass or something like that but in the distant future.

[iheartthed]

Boston seems about the same to me now as it did a decade ago. Chicago was a little more buzzy in the 2000s than the 2010s, but I don't know if I would say it has dropped off the radar. OTOH, San Francisco and Toronto seem to have gotten more buzz over the past 5-10 years. Seattle seems to be getting a bit less attention, perhaps because the Bay Area is sucking up all of the startup energy

[mhays]

My impression is that Seattle has been getting far more attention than 10 years ago, and the biggest reason is its massive growth as a tech center, including the recent 18-month national discussion of Amazon. It was never a major start-up city. We've lost our brief music cachet and no longer film many movies, but we seem to be the setting of way more.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

In general American culture, outside of African American, has had to compete with a ‘commonwealth culture’ centered on the Uk but with outposts in Canada, Australia, nz etc.

Just when I thought you've said the most absurd thing about Canada you go out-do yourself. You don't know ANYTHING about Canada if you think the culture here is 'Commonwealth' or influenced by it. Culturally, Canada sticks out like a sore thumb within the Commonwealth. Their culture is as foreign to us as it is to Americans. Canada developed its own culture that differs massively from what one sees in Australia South Africa, NA, England, etc. In sports it's clear as day. We play our own Canadian sports like basketball, football, baseball, and hockey. The Commonwealth play cricket, rugby, and netball.

And Canadian culture/US culture is the exact same culture. Canada/US has behaved like one cultural block from day 1. A culture can't compete with itself.

If something became popular or was invented it didn't matter one iota if that thing came from Texas, Ontario, Ohio, Alberta, etc. It was adopted Canada/US wide, the culture shifted, and then it happened again tens of thousands of times There's a reason why Canadian entertainers do well in the US and vice versa. We're culturally one people with a few regional variations.

[kool maudit]

I think what dc_denizen is noticing is the rise of a sort of "international English" (online English?) culture that is neither American nor British.

I don't think he is wrong; I think he has an obvious *thing* with Canada that is causing enmity on SSP, but to be honest, I don't think Canadians always see the degree of anti-Americanism that is embedded in our worldview, and to which he is responding. I'll say no more about that.

I will say that I've noticed Scandinavia kind of becoming part of the Anglo cultural sphere, though.

[Yuri]

On the past 25 years, it's definitely Chicago. From a world's Top 6 or so, it will make only on Top 20 these days. On the other hand, I think it stopped falling by now. Less dramatic, Los Angeles seemed to have lost some ground.

People mentioned Boston, but I guess it's where it used to be. In fact, it might even has gotten a bit more prominence on the past 10 years.

Wordwide, Sydney. 20 years ago, it was all about Sydney and now it gets much less mention even with the strong perfomance of Australia economics and demographics over this period.

[Razor]

I think that most cities have natural ebbs and flows to their public profiles due to sports and events. A city like Boston has always had a decent profile from my pov, because of it's legacy status within NA context, but it's profile got elevated with the Patriots winning all those Superbowls..Ditto for Chicago with the Bulls, Sydney with their Olympics etc.
A huge impact to effect a city's profile is the arts IMO.. Case in point Seattle with their music scene exploding in the early 90's. Before that, Seattle was known about, but it really bust out in the early part of that decade. I guess you can say that Amazon raised it's profile again, but not to the same extent. DC was on the radar for awhile, but more for negative reasons with their horrendous crime rate, and their mayor Marion Berry. Ditto for Toronto and Doug Ford..Back when the movie Crocodile Dundee came out, it raised Australia's profile briefly ditto for Steve Irwin, but it had more to do with the country and not necessarily Australian cities. The arts like movies and music are really powerful in that regard. I'm being facetious here, but if an artist were to bust out and make Hawaiian music become trendy and hugely popular, Honolulu may become front and centre for a period. Don't worry Portland, your time to shine will happen!