I lived in Memphis for 10 years. “Elvis lived here” is a pretty thorough summary of the city. Despite a lot of great talent there, it often felt like the city hadn’t figured out how to move past its musical glory days and feel good about current artists, who maybe dont have the reach and pull and sheer hits of Stax and Sun’s heydays but are still doing great stuff. It is a great place for artists as it’s a big city but has a low cost of living and is not in a high pressure limelight, there is room to develop in a smaller pond.
Memphis does have a massive self-esteem problem. It’s been in slow decline for a long time, it frequently reminds me of Detroit in the issues it faced and its seeming helplessness in having any ability to reverse its fortunes. It used to be an economic powerhouse and practically ran the state; Nashville eventually surpassed it as it’s “New South” energy won over Memphis’ old south energy (which has its tradeoffs; to me Nashville is kind of shallow glitzy could-be-anywhere, while Memphis is for better or worse “funkier”). Crime and poverty and bad racial relations are so entrenched I really felt a weight lift when we moved away. I do wish it the best because there are many wonderful people and wonderful things we miss (most of which arent in the video) but dang they have to figure some shit out.
(ETA srry dont know why this ended up a reply to xkot)
