Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Music & the Arts
Go ahead and mock. But when Californians thank their lucky stars - or good
karma, or the goddess - they don't live in New York, they're not just talking
about beach weather. This place has long supported thriving music and arts
scenes that aren't afraid to be completely independent, even outlandish at
times. Given that this is the USA's most racially and ethnically diverse state,
unlimited creativity makes perfect sense.
In the 1950s, the hard-edged, honky-tonk Bakersfield Sound emerged inland in California's
Central Valley, where Buck Owens and the Buckaroos and Merle Haggard performed their
own twist on Nashville country hits for hard-drinkin' audiences of Dust Bowl migrants and
cowboy ranchers.
Music
In your California dreamin', you jam with a band - so what kind of music do you play?
Beach Boys covers, West Coast rap, bluegrass, off-key punk, classic soul, hard bop, heavy-
metal riffs on opera or DJ mashups of all of the above? No problem: a walk down a city
street here can sound like the world's most eclectic iPod set to shuffle.
Much of the recording industry is based in LA, and SoCal's film and TV industries have
proven powerful talent incubators. But today's troubled pop princesses and airbrushed boy
bands are only here thanks to the tuneful revolutions of all of the decades of innovation that
came before.
Early Eclectic Sounds
Chronologically speaking, Mexican folk music arrived in California first, during the rancho
era. Later in the 19th century, Gold Rush immigrants introduced bluegrass, bawdy dance-
hall ragtime and Chinese classical music.
By the turn of the 20th century, opera had become California's favorite sound. The city of
San Francisco alone had 20 concert and opera halls before the 1906 earthquake literally
