London has an established reputation of being one of the most important centres of music in the world, and it’s not difficult to understand why. London was the birthplace of many genres that shaped our understanding of music, and helped us give colour to a decade judging by the music it gave us.
The 60s were the decade of rock and roll, of folk and blues, of that sweet 60s pop sound. When we think of the 70s, we think about punk, and London was the place of punk, with the Sex Pistols who challenged the norms of music, of fashion, of political discourse, and inspired generation upon generation; its influences are still very visible around London. Go to Camden and you will feel this strongly.
And for decade upon decade, London was a place where music had both the right artists and the right crowd to make possible the invention, alteration, addition or removal of sounds in the music web so that it kept evolving and making music exciting and unusual and brilliant year after year after year.
Today, in London, you can get to experience any type of music or band or artist you’d like. If you are a fan of huge international artists who fill the O2 or the Wembley Stadium with thousands and thousands of fans, you can get that. If you’re looking for a more intimate experience, you can get this from the many gigs performed in pubs across London. If you want to have fun with your friends for a few days, you can opt for one of the many festivals London is hosting across the year. If you want to experiment with the underground scene, to listen to and support emerging bands, if you want to have an authentic experience with music from people who are doing music for the sake of music and are indulgent in their artistic expression, then a gig somewhere in South-East or Northern London will do it for you.
There are also numerous options for classical music, for opera, for jazz, for everything. London allows you to experiment, that it’s not constraining in any sense, that one day you can go to the Royal Opera House, and then the next day you can go to a pub on a shady street and listen to some kids screaming very loudly and playing crappy guitar. And both will be great, because both are expressions of love for music. And this is what I love about music in London, how versatile it can get, how you can jump from one genre to another in an instant.
The record stores represent another part of why I enjoy experiencing music in London so much. A lot of record stores are very versatile and you can discover music from bands and artists that, otherwise, might be hard to get to know about, considering they don’t have any online coverage. And then there’s also the historical aspect of music London, and the aura surrounding certain places loaded with musical history, that makes you feel lucky to be able to live in a city who has witnessed the best of music evolve and change and reach its peak.
It feels like all types of music managed to converge in London, and this is something truly special, as there aren’t that many other places that can give you so many live music opportunities and make you feel like you can discover something new every day. It’s the excitement of knowing that in London you might always go and watch the live concert of one of your favourite mainstream musicians, but the even bigger excitement of knowing that you can get to experiment something new and unusual everyday by attending a gig of a band you never heard of, of knowing that you might witness something that might become a turning point for music. It is, ultimately, the extreme passion for music that you can get to witness so casually and so often, that makes London such a great music scene.
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