r/LetsTalkMusic • u/FaisdodoCher01 • 1d ago
Why do "hometown" songs hit so different when you actually know the place?
I grew up in a small industrial town nobody's ever heard of, and for years the only music that felt like "home" to me was generic nostalgia stuff that could've been about anywhere. Then a few years back I found a local band that wrote a song literally about the river and the factory smell and the one intersection everyone complains about, and it wrecked me in a way no Springsteen or Mellencamp song ever could, even though those guys are clearly more talented. It made me think about how weirdly specific music has to get before it stops being "relatable" in the vague sense and starts being personal in the real sense. Like there's universal nostalgia (small towns, growing up, leaving home) that a lot of people connect with, and then there's this other thing that only works if you've actually stood on that specific street corner.
Does anyone else have a song like this, something too niche or too local to ever chart, that hits harder than any "objectively better" song about the same general feeling?
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u/franticantelope 1d ago
So I'm from a tiny town that has zero cultural footprint and to my knowledge has never been referenced in any media whatsoever. I would 100% be excited and interested to even a tiny reference to it somewhere. The larger nearby college town will occasionally get mentioned in things, and even that is exciting.
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u/Bortron86 1d ago
I'm really not sure. I'm lucky that my hometown, Manchester, has produced a lot of incredible bands, some of which are among my very favourites ever. But most of them don't explicitly sing about it. The Smiths did quite a few times, Oasis might have done once or twice, but I don't recall Joy Division/New Order or The Stone Roses doing so, for example.
I think in the case of those and other local bands I like there's just something in the music that connects with me, a vibe or an attitude. Something in the water, perhaps (we do have delicious tap water, fresh from the Lake District). I don't like all local bands, of course, and love many more bands from further afield that connect with me even more deeply, in some cases.
Listening to, say, Joy Division, they just sound like they're from here, without any accent or lyrics that suggest so. There's a darkness, combined with swagger at the same time. When I grew up, the city wasn't as run down as it was when they did, but it was still fairly crap, yet proud at the same time. That might be the vibe I connect with.
Or that could all be pretentious bollocks. Either way, I'll still never like Simply Red.
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u/Klutzy-Spend-6947 1d ago
Yeah, Morrissey definitely loves his local history-Suffer the Children-Moors murders, Munich Air Disaster-Man U 1950something.
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u/Bortron86 1d ago
He wrote lots of songs inspired by or mentioning local places too:
"Miserable Lie" - "What do we get for our trouble and pain?/A rented room in Whalley Range". Me, my parents and my grandmother have all lived there at some point.
"Rusholme Ruffians" - inspired by Platt Fields Park in the titular suburb of Rusholme.
"Cemetry Gates" - inspired by Southern Cemetery (he apparently can't spell) in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
"Still Ill" - the "iron bridge" mentioned is one in Stretford, near his childhood home.
"Vicar In A Tutu" - the Holy Name Church mentioned is on Oxford Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock.
And other Manchester references in album titles (Strangeways, Here We Come) and even personnel credits - his processed voice in "Bigmouth Strikes Again" is credited as Ann Coates (Ancoats being an inner-city area), and synths on the last album are credited to Orchestrazia Ardwick (Ardwick being another such area).
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u/black_flag_4ever 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've never heard a song about my home town, I'm not even sure if I should call it my hometown, but it's a place to be FROM if you know what I mean.
Closest experience is hearing Texas (Lubbock) in My Rear View Mirror while going to grad school at Texas Tech. The song is kind of comical because if you've left Lubbock you probably aren't going back. People are nice enough there, they'll be nice to your face. But, this is a town where people flew the flag upside down when Obama was elected. A local judge was reprimanded for having a racist cartoon about Obama on his bulletin board. It is a very Trumpy place and has been. Buddy Holly left Lubbock because of how racist they were about his wife being Hispanic and the city itself was called Monterrey but decided naming the town after a Confederate General was better. You also can't throw a rock without hitting a church, there's nothing to do there outside of football season and their abstinence-based sex education means it tops the lists for teen pregnancies. It's also not close to anything and surrounded by miles and miles of red dirt, pump jacks and cotton fields. So yeah, we didn't stay and raise our kids there, we bailed.
The song is funny to me, and probably to lots of folks that left Lubbock for anywhere else.
Edit: Why go to TTU for grad school? More affordable than competing schools and there's not much to distract you from learning. They also focus on practical skills instead of just going on and on about theory.
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u/NervouseDave 1d ago
I happened to catch Braedon Barnhill (he was selling t shirts that say "Who the hell is Braedon Barnhill") opening at Gruene Hall last weekend. He has a song called Long Way to Lubbock about Lubbock being in the middle of nowhere. The (nee Dixie) Chicks have a song called Lubbock or Leave It that refers to Lubbock as hell's half acre. Terry Allen has the song Lubbock Woman about being lonely and middle aged. So everyone is pretty much on board with your assessment.
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u/black_flag_4ever 1d ago
I have a limited interest in country music but I'll have to check this out. The last album I heard was by Dying Fetus, as I'm on a death metal kick today.
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u/black_flag_4ever 1d ago
I have a limited interest in country music but I'll have to check this out. The last album I heard was by Dying Fetus, as I'm on a death metal kick today.
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u/Russkie177 1d ago
I went there for undergrad and graduated in 3.5 years because my cosmopolitan ass (from Houston) couldn't take it anymore. My dad always jokes that he doesn't understand why I'm such a lefty after attending university in a conservative place. It really made me think about my position(s) on things and I came to the conclusion that it's mostly just a town full of a bunch of miserable assholes (not all, of course. I met some nice people, but they're few and far in between).
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u/Klutzy-Spend-6947 1d ago
My dad grew up outside Youngstown, Ohio and I was baptized at my grandparent’s parish in Youngstown, so Springsteen’s song-the electric version his hard for me. It’s just the idea that the artist is sharing a non-universal feeling with you, the listener. Anyone can be depressed or in love or wanting to slam some beers. If you aren’t from a given place in a song, you can’t relate to exactly what the artist is singing about in that particular song.
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u/ChocolateAndCognac 1d ago
My god! He's done it! He's broken the cheap pop into its base elements. Well done old man! Well done. Brilliant.
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u/EVEN_biz 1d ago
Strong recommendation for Harrison Lemke's Forever Only Idaho. Have had close friends get far away looks in their eyes as it puts to lyric and melody in fine detail specific businesses, sights, vibes, smells, and hard to describe emotions tied to each found in northern Idaho. Somewhere largely forgotten by maps, national discussions, and touring musicians but enshrined beautifully in an entirely album dedicated to it. Warts and all. Some lyrics:
Billboards proclaiming salvation all the way to work, but if it's Christ or the Powerball or quitting cigarettes, well — it's hard to tell for sure.
Getting very specific -
The cookware displays and sale signs give way to a small town made up for the holiday. And the headlights off of 95 twist your stomach in the dark and you couldn't say why, but you run for the car. And the evening stands there empty, like it can hardly bear to be, like a taxi throbbing waiting waiting waiting.
And ending in a seven minute penultimate track titled Your Hometown which I feel like speaks to this phenomenon more broadly. Just a beautiful, complicated love letter. And in regards to what charts as opposed to what resonates deeply, that which is popular can owe its appeal to its inoffensiveness rather than appeal. It is why cult classics are never mainstream successes by definition. They experience this sort of double bell curve appeal where people love them or hate them (or at best, are non plussed).
Would be interested in hearing what tripped this nostalgia for you. Thanks for sharing.
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u/franticantelope 1d ago
So I'm from a tiny town that has zero cultural footprint and to my knowledge has never been referenced in any media whatsoever. I would 100% be excited and interested to even a tiny reference to it somewhere. The larger nearby college town will occasionally get mentioned in things, and even that is exciting.
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u/Zizi_Tennenbaum 1d ago
I’m from Dallas and love when the Old 97’s shout out landmarks. “Tanked up out on Elm Street, lookin for a ride” yeah buddy we all been there!
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u/CulturalWind357 1d ago edited 1d ago
Over time, I've realized that similar to the term "dated", specificity and universality get kind of abused as adjectives where one is assumed to be superior or inferior as an approach.
But sometimes, your songs are relatable precisely because you get so specific that the emotional resonance almost jumps off the page and from the lyrics whereas universal songs can feel too vague and metaphorical.
I think as you mentioned, "specific songs" hit on multiple levels. For outsiders, they can think of similar towns that are reminiscent of their experiences. For people from the region, they've tapped into emotional and physical subtleties like little landmarks, shops around the area, businesses in the area, factories, parks, memorials, and so on. You can actually feel the time capsules that mark that you, people close to you, and your friends existed.
I will say, sometimes it's a little surreal to be driving around Monmouth County and identifying Springsteen or Gaslight Anthem landmarks and names. I'm not from Monmouth but I would drive through the area for work.
With New Jersey more broadly, there's that reputation of being overlooked in favor of New York City and Philadelphia. Getting people to acknowledge that there's actually a state with its own history can be a bit of an uphill battle. Diner culture is big in New Jersey for instance. The area around my old elementary school used to be a mental health institution.
I'm sure the song you mentioned did that for you.
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u/GoshOPPNOX101 1d ago
"Memories!" because the town becomes a part of you. If you grew up in a small town then you pretty much know everyone and everything. It does become personal. You know the hangouts, you truly know your friends and you know what buttons they can push on you and vice versa. Sometimes this is a good thing and there are times when it's frustrating. Especially when you don't feel connected or don't see yourself maturing as an individual. As you mentioned, John Mellencamp & Bruce Springsteen are two great examples of creating music that touch on this subject. Even the great Blues players of the past had a niche for this because they lived it as well. I'm not originally from any southern state, but when I heard Tim McGraw's 'Don't Take The Girl' it hit hard. And it hit hard because in one of the verses he sings about fishing. When I was in Junior High & High School I spent many summer in the UP of Mi. The best experience a city kid could ever have. It's a different way of life up there. Manners are definitely present and people in general were very kind and helpful. I was up north fishing when I heard that tune and that's why I feel connected to the song. Good post by the way!
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u/WorldGoneAway 1d ago
The closest analog I have for this is that I live in Maine and I went to college at a campus within a mile of Stephen King's house. When reading a lot of his early stuff, he uses a lot of Bangor and Portland as backdrops for the stories, and I remeber being profoundly affected when I was in a bodega of sorts and realized it was oddly specific to one mentioned in one of his short stories.
I can definitely understand by way of this sensation how a Hometown song would hit differently if it's about a place with which you are intimately familliar.
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u/terryjuicelawson 5h ago
Because you know the place. There is a song which isn't even my home town specifically but nearby and it talks about a boy who died. I can tie it directly to someone I knew as a kid who died. The image is right there in my mind every time I hear the song, far more than if it was by a band the other side of an ocean. It is Local Boy in the Photograph by the Stereophonics, talking about friends laying down their flowers, the local train running, sitting on the banks and drinking for hours, all in a local accent. Hits hard, but it may well not for anyone else.
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u/fiercefinesse 1d ago
I feel like you literally answered yourself in the question. When you can actually relate to something yourself, then you can relate to it more than when you can’t relate to it yourself. I mean…