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While many cities boast big name bands and a history of chart-toppers, nowhere can match Bristol's reputation for innovation and originality. The South West's nomination is known for setting the scene, rather than following fashion.
Over the last twenty-five years, Bristol has been the source of exciting and experimental new musical genres resulting from the city's diverse cultural mix and perhaps it's sheer physical distance from other musical centres. Bristol has grasped the chance to be different.
In the 1990's the Westcountry spawned trip-hop, taking a combination of reggae, dance and hip-hop to a mainstream audience. Although they never adhered to the trip-hop tag, Massive Attack were regarded as the scene's focal point, especially after the release of 'Unfinished Sympathy' in 1991, a record which will appear in lists of the Top 25 singles for ever more.
Massive Attack (or Massive as they were called during the first Gulf War) were joined in the mid-90's by Portishead and Tricky, both of whom had evolved out of the Wild Bunch Sound System, the unique collective of MCs, DJs and breakdancers owed more to the streets of New York than to the UK, along with uber-producer Nellee Hooper.
While trip-hop was fading away another new style was developing. Roni Size and Reprazent brought Drum n' Bass to the world on winning the 1997 Mercury Music Prize. The mix of breakbeats and the rave scene was one of the freshest sounds in years. Again, Bristol had taken a look at what was going on, turned it on its head and become an international focal point for new music.
Other acts that have kept Bristol at the cutting edge of cool include critically acclaimed but criminally ignored The Blue Aeroplanes, Kosheen and pioneering producers Way Out West. And Bristol can also boast it's own international chart stars in Keren Woodward and Sarah Dallin, two local girls who met aged four and went on to form the most successful British girl band ever (before the Spice Girls came along). Bananarama had ten Top 10 hits in the UK, as well as three in the US.
If a history of collectives and cool isn't enough for you to cast a vote for Bristol then maybe the world's biggest and best music festival is. Just sixteen miles away is Glastonbury, home to a festival which has become a byword for everything which is great in British music and another reason to choose your Most Musical City from the South-West.
