Nashville I presume for country.  Austin for ?  I presume country as well?  Where does the aspiring rock/metal musician go now?  LA was big in the 80s.  Seattle had something going with grunge in the early 90s.  But if I wanted to see a bunch of new upcoming bands playing rock, metal, or blues where would the place that would first come to mind be?

Or is the music scene just dead in this country?

I'll have to say most, if not nearly all, of the rock/metal I'm listening to now comes out of Europe.

Based on the replies..

It's official it's dead.

Austin's scene is pretty lame nowadays, honestly. A lot of really sub-par bands playing goofy music for free. Very little that resembles "tomorrow's talent". Great touring acts come through, but it's not the place that launched SRV into the world.

Nashville is good for country and and some roots/alternative too. There are pockets of good music here and there...Columbus has a huge indie scene, Seattle is huge with hipster/indie, Portland too....LA and the Bay area are always hotbeds of live music. Kinda just spread all out, now that the labels are dead. Live music is where everyone makes money, so it all hinges on that.

Music today won’t be traditional bands, it’s electronic. That’s the trend with up and coming artists. Also, with the Internet I don’t really think artists have to form communities in certain areas anymore.

Local metal scene in Houston is healthy.

It's all indie.  Doesn't matter the genre....Indie music is where it's at.

Just saw DragonForce with Unleash the Archers and Visions of Atlantis ( an acquired taste ) tonight and it was a lot of fun. ( I like prog metal which is specifically an Independent genre now )

Corporate music is just like corporate everything, watered down sewage.

YouTube and Instagram. Seriously. There really is no city that's a go-to anymore. Granted, if you want to get session work, Nashville or LA is probably a good idea, but if you're just trying to do your own thing, the internet is a great opportunity, and even without it, things are decentralized to a certain extent. Just look at some of the bands that have made it. Slipknot is from Iowa, Mastodon is from Georgia, Lamb of God is from Virginia, ect.

That said, if there's little to no demand for your type of music where you live and want to play out, it might be a good idea to move, but you don't have to move across the country either.