pop music and...patriotism/local pride

From New York City? Yes. No to all the rest.

do you make a more concerted effort to hear local bands / national favourites?

Again, I'm all for the locals. National favourites and almost always abject trash.

have you written for publications that feel a need to big up their local/national scene? what do you think of such publications?

I don't believe we called it "bigging up" back then, but yes. I regularly wrote about local bands for a long-vanished weekly. It made perfect sense that a NYC paper would focus on NYC bands/artistis.

do you have a fondness for particular bands that you will happily admit is more down to local pride than any particular admiration for their music?

This partially explains my appreciation for bands like the Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front, who -- apart from being from NYC -- are largely disaggreeable characters with some not-so-nice things to say much of the time.

But having lived in Jersey for eight years, I still don't "get" the Boss.

i'm always happy when local kids make good.

do you make a more concerted effort to hear local bands / national favourites?

not when i'm in new york. there are too many bands here; i can't keep up with them all, so i don't try. but place can definitely be a major influence on musical style, whether inadvertent or not. it's a fun thing to think about.

have you written for publications that feel a need to big up their local/national scene? what do you think of such publications?

taking the question literally, yes i've written for such places, but i've never been much of a "scene" cheerleader.

do you have a fondness for particular bands that you will happily admit is more down to local pride than any particular admiration for their music?

probably.