In response to a bit of a hubbub between journalists this morning, I'm throwing my hat into the ring. In the old days, there might have been something like a musical style or taste that developed out of what some called a music scene. But this is rare. Think of Bird and Dizzy, riffing up Be Bop in New York. Or a few geniuses behind Staxx and Motown.

At any one time, the wealth of talented singers, players and songwriters collected in Boston, Nashville, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Liverpool, London, New York, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, and even Barcelona or San Francisco, might have contributed to the validity of this idea.

But who made these artists? Was it the cities; diverse personal experience; or perhaps a blending of these things? To point to the region the music comes from diverts too much attention from the artist(s) who create it. To say that James Brown is from Georgia is meaningless because James Brown is James Brown. To say that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle and just passing through London, has even less meaning.

Even less so today.

We live in a time where anyone, anywhere in the world can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, with only two requirements: 1) that they can get online, 2) that they have working speakers or headphones.

There is no longer any need to be authentic or true to any scene other than the one you want to create and be a part of. If you are true to yourself and your audience, that is enough. If not, good luck!

The question we should be posing to new artists, therefore, isn't where are you from, but who are you? What sounds do you like, what moves you?