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captainpocket t1_j50fhjr wrote

Reply to comment by Gladhands in What city does Pittsburgh share the most similarities with? by [deleted]

LOCAL CULTURE?! Just no. Philly and Baltimore are deeply urban cities with significantly fewer...rural-minded people bopping around. (And I'm not equating "rural" with politics here.) Pittsburgh has cowboy wannabes in spades. Those cities do not. They have significantly more diverse culture, from things like restaurants to stuff like concert bookings and music played at bars. There is not even ONE edm bar in this city. Both of those have a countless number of them. Also of note, both of those cities regularly host music festivals. They are both east coast to the core and Pittsburgh just isn't. Its deeply influenced by neighboring WV and Ohio. The population is also a part of why all of this is the case, but it just makes the culture totally different. Pittsburgh has great stuff and there are a ton of hidden gems in most of the categories I mentioned above, but Philly and Baltimore are awash in just way more and it totally changes the culture.

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Gladhands t1_j50guc9 wrote

To be clear: when I talk about local culture, I’m talking about those things specific to the city and region, which are not found in comparably sized cities outside of the region. Pittsburgh, lack of EDM bars isn’t a product of local culture; it’s a product of the city’s poor nightlife. Pittsburgh simply gets less in the way of big city nightlife because it’s a much smaller metro area.

Pittsburgh’s working class white population is virtually indistinguishable from Baltimore and Philadelphia’s. Those cowboy wannabes you were discussing are suburban/exurban (Pittsburgh does get rural far closer to the city than PHI/BAL). Pittsburgh is also in no way influenced by West Virginia, simply, because West Virginia has no influence anywhere.

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captainpocket t1_j50hq72 wrote

That's just not true about WV. Take me home country roads is a hot song in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas. There are a lot of WV transplants here, and the populationis small enough that its noticeable. The rural proximity heavily influences the culture. The nightlife heavily influences the culture. Thats part of the culture, you cant say it isnt. And the working class white population is completely different in Philadelphia. They are working class and white and similarly educated, but they aren't cowboys like they are here. I'm from Philadelphia, man.

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Gladhands t1_j50j874 wrote

Basic white people love that song everywhere. https://wtop.com/entertainment/2021/12/the-universal-nostalgia-for-take-me-home-country-roads/

I don’t know where you get this impression that Yinzers are somehow different from working class urban whites in Philly. Yinzers are very specifically urban, and are the same type of people who do the Mummers parade. They’re the same as the whites who worked the docks. The working class whites in Pittsburgh are not the same as the working class whites 15 minutes outside of the city though.

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James19991 t1_j50l89z wrote

Modern country and certain bluegrass is quite popular everywhere at this point, and not really just a regional thing anymore. Country concerts now get a big draw whether they're in New England, Tennessee, California, or Toronto.

The upcoming Morgan Wallen concert tour this summer includes three concerts at Fenway and two at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ for example.

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James19991 t1_j50hdq9 wrote

Pittsburgh is deeply influenced by the significantly less populated nearby areas of West Virginia and Eastern Ohio? You're kidding right? If anything, the influence goes around the other way.

Also as Gladhands said, if you ask where a lot of those cowboy wannabes live, it's more often than not somewhere outside of Allegheny County.

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captainpocket t1_j50i1uw wrote

Yes. Pittsburgh is deeply to its core influenced by the fact that it is closely surrounded on all sides by rural wastelands for hours on end. Of course it is.

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James19991 t1_j50lwib wrote

I have never in my life heard someone claim significantly less populated rural areas outside of a city influence the city more than the city would influence the areas surrounding it.

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captainpocket t1_j50ulba wrote

Okay let me rephrase it to help you understand. A small city surrounded on all sides by rural nothingness is going to have a significantly different culture than a much larger city where people can take a day trip to multiple equally large or larger cities.

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ConnectBlacksmith112 t1_j66kyli wrote

What part of Pittsburgh were you at ? Cause you clearly never to been to my side of town. So tell how different the culture is since you know so much. lol

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