kane

When it comes to success in music a lot of it is luck, timing and hard work. Had sub pop been a record label that focused on hip hop or country music they would have never gotten big. They were in the right place at the right time and did the right things. They caught lightning in a bottle.

As far as popular music once this was over it really depends on what you are looking for. When the Seattle scene got big it became a worldwide obsession and there probably hasn't been anything like that as far as a single hotbed of music since then, but there have been similar trends. Pop made a huge comeback at the end of the grunge era. Britney Spears, Nsync, Backstreet Boys and acts like that were suddenly the hot new thing. They were selling big, all over the radio and MTV and they were setting fashion trends like crazy. It wasn't long after it all started when half the girls in the country were wearing belly shirts and low rise jeans and dressing like Britney and Christina. Every major label ran out as fast as they could and signed either a boy band, a girl band or some kind of pop singer. It wasn't really a geographical thing, but it was big. There were a ton of bands that had a hit song or two then disappeared and the ones that were first cashed in big and had some staying power.

I think the industry has changed enough since the early 90's that it will be hard to fully replicate what happened in Seattle. Now days the labels are pushing hard to get a single out on Itunes so they can sell it, sell the ring tone and then get the person on tour as soon as possible. There are people who are big and peak before they even have a record out. Then the album comes out and six months later they are gone. If Nirvana came out today they may have never made it any further than to have Smells Like Teen Spirit on Itunes and the radio.

Maybe one day we sill see another situation where a single location ignites the music industry, but I think it is getting harder and harder. It used to be that bands got together and they played locally and built up a name for themselves on the local scene while shopping their demo around. They often would sign with a smaller local label and hope that with that behind them they could attract the attention of the major labels. Now they form, record a few songs, make a myspace and face book, put their songs on Itunes and work to market themselves online and to the masses before they ever even really play live. I'm not saying all bands do that, but many of them do. There are still vibrant music scenes out there, but I'm not sure we will be seeing anything like what happened in Seattle in the early 90's again any time soon.