Chicago's Greatest
Chicago is the third most populous city in the Midwest United States with nearly 10 million in the Chicago metropolitan area alone. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, novels, film, theater, improvisational comedy, and music. The city is the birthplace of house music, industrial music, and is the site of the influential hip-hop scene but also focuses on jazz, blues, soul, gospel, house music, alternative rock, punk, and new wave. The city has been an epicenter for rave culture since the 1980s, and the flourishing independent rock music culture produced a new genre called “Chicago indie.” Annual festivals feature various acts such as Lollapalooza and the Pitchfork Music Festival. A 2007 report on the Chicago music industry by the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center ranked Chicago third among metropolitan U.S. areas in "size of music industry" and fourth among all U.S. cities in "number of concerts and performances".