Skip to main content

meganoyinka
31st October 2019

Manchester named a ‘Music Capital’ of the UK

Despite missing first place overall by Blackpool, Manchester has been recognised as a music capital for three music genres
Categories:
TLDR
Manchester named a ‘Music Capital’ of the UK
Photo: Max Pixel

A new research study has named Manchester as the UK’s Music Capital for Rock/Indie, Electronic Dance Music (EDM) and Hip-Hop.

Conducted by Tickx, the study used data from over 300,000 events UK wide and used this data to determine how many events each city in the country held for each music genre.

It may come as no surprise to many that Manchester has been named Music Capital for Rock and Indie music. Manchester’s influence on the scene may be well-known due to the city being the birthplace of artists such as Oasis, Stone Roses, New Order, The Smiths, and Joy Division.

However, it may have been previously overlooked for its Electronic Dance Music and Hip Hop scene.

Manchester, as of this year, has beaten Brighton as EDM capital of the UK (which held the title for 2018). The study found that Manchester holds an average of 1.3 EDM events per 1000 people. The research also shows that Manchester tops the list for House, Garage, and Disco music events, with 3.3 events, 1.6 events and 0.36 events per 1000 people respectively, making Manchester one of the best cities in the UK for all kinds of music lovers.

While Northern cities held more titles for music capitals over Southern cities, Southern cities topped the charts for their Drum and Bass, Grime, and Garage events. Interestingly, London did not appear as top 5 for any of the genres involved in the research. Torquay was named the capital of Grime and Garage music, despite the genre emerging mostly from London.

 


More Coverage

The legacy Salford venue is set to be taken over by the owners of a nightclub next door as BASTION. Users online voiced issue about a supposedly AI launch poster, and a smoothing over of The White Hotel’s diverse gig programming
An attack on Canvas by a hacker group caused a major disruption to students.
The policies, implications and results of the May 2026 Union Assembly vote.
Work experience will be included in all university degree programs at the University of Manchester.