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Originally Posted by Musicman215
OP here, I agree LA is our entertainment capital and center for pop culture but the stuff from LA might not make a lasting effect on the world or America and I feel like recently Hollywood, TV, and pop music have lost some artistic value and creativity. New York and Philly, however continue to produce and develop high culture like classical music, theater, literature, and other types of visual and performing arts. For example Philly's mural program and chamber music series, it doesn't exist anywhere else in the US. Same with NYC's Broadway or publishing industry.
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Literature, classical music and theater is in decline and to produce a lasting effect is more challenging than in other genres/mediums. To illustrate, can most Americans name a single living composer (not a movie composer) other than Philip Glass (and he did score for movies as well)? And literature is too dispersed. I don’t see more or less writers coming from a specific city than elsewhere. You just dont move to New York to write a novel anymore. I think it would be hard to argue any of those areas have a stronger staying power with future generations than the mediums that LA dominates. Speaking as someone who dislikes most of what’s out there, television is one area still experiencing a golden age in terms of high value artistic content.
But I think you’re underestimating how much influence LA has in high culture in addition to entertainment. America really only has two art capitals which is LA and NYC, overwhemingly American artists that reach global success come from those two cities. Because LA has entertainment it cross pollinates into the city’s other creative areas as well.
In terms of classical music, there’s really not an orchestra in America that’s as successful or receiving more acclaim that LA Philharmonic right now. It’s become the orchestra with a lot of superlatives (largest budget, highest paid, most profitable, most wanted conductor, most innovative etc). It’s pretty much been said that the West coast (along with exceptional orchestras in SF and Seattle) have been holding the flame for the survival of classical music today as the audiences there tend to be younger and more multicultural. The biggest issue facing classical music right now on the east coast is that audience have stayed white, older and richer and they need to expand out of that when those audiences die off in the coming decades.