Ongoing History Daily: The cities that create the most musical inspiration

December 6, 2023 Alan Cross 0 Comments 0 min read

There are thousands of songs that namecheck various cities around the planet. A new survey went through a big, long list of song titles, names of albums, and lyrics to find which cities turn up the most.

I would have expected New York to be at the top of the list, but no. Within the scope of this analysis, New York showed up in 607 song titles, 35 album names, and over a thousand lyrics. That was good for only fifth place.

Ahead of New York was Chicago, Rome, and Paris. Any guesses which city name has been used the most? London with over a thousand song titles, 46 album names, and far beyond 1,000 incidents of “London” being used in lyrics.

The most popular country? Japan. And the least popular? Doha, Qatar.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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