For too many years, Detroit has had a bad reputation.
I’ve defended this city countless times against accusations true and false. The sad truth is there’s a negative stigma about this city that still sticks in the craws of most Americans.
But there’s something we could do to change that perspective. We need to tell the story of Detroit’s cultural wealth to the rest of the world.
I wanted to say sell our story, but that makes me think we’re taking a second mortgage out on the Motown Museum.
Here’s what I mean. Detroit is a cultural mecca. It’s a creative capital like Berlin, Paris, Los Angeles, New York City. It’s one city under a groove that not only put the world on wheels but helped it find its sense of rhythm, too.
And that’s the nickname I’m pitching: “one city under a groove.” Because it puts all the musical genres we’ve touched — jazz, gospel (you could make the argument that Black church is responsible for all genres), techno, rock, Motown — under one umbrella.
But when you look around, it’s criminal how little of our artistic, cultural, and musical heritage is billboarded to tourists. Don’t get me started on engaging people who already live here.
How many people with a Detroit address have actually been to the Motown Museum? How many people who haven’t been here think of Motown music before they think of cars and crime?
Cultural tourism has always felt like a back seat passenger in the Motor City. It’s a form of soft power that the city never manages to gas up.
Detroit painter Mario Moore once described our arts-rich city to me like this: “We’re talking about techno, hip-hop, art, murals, music. That’s why people want to come here.”
And when people travel for culture, they spend more.
Before the pandemic, the nonprofit Americans for the Arts released a national study examining how supporters of the arts spent their money. While locals spent an average of $23.44 per person at an art-related event, cultural tourists spent double.
It’s shocking to me that the mayor isn’t bragging about cultural tourism and its impact on the city’s bottom line at the State of the City every year.
It’s a felonious-level failure of city and state officials not to push for that revenue.
Or even invest in that idea, as Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, have.
When you land at Detroit Metro Airport, there’s no Motown music playing. No larger-than-life displays bragging about the music we make.
When you arrive in Nashville’s airport, you know you’re in Music City (they’ve even got the nickname down). Live musicians are performing. Terminals feel like honky-tonks on Broadway Street. You might just be flying through, but it makes an impression that lasts. It’s meant big money: Last year, tourists spent $29 million a day in Nashville.
In Austin, they’ve captured tourists’ wallets for decades by being the “live music capital of the world.” Isn’t that sexy? That’s created an annual revenue of $1.8 billion tied to the music industry. There are over 250 venues around the city. Live entertainment every night.
In Detroit, we don’t have that kind of calendar, but there is some coin coming into the city. In 2023, 19 million visitors spent over $10 billion in Detroit and the metro region. The vast majority of that sum was spent on dining, attractions, and entertainment, according to Visit Detroit.
But it could be more. More money, more jobs, more respect for being the greatest music city on the planet.
Maybe it’s a catchy nickname that sticks. Maybe a “city pass” that gets you a discount at major museums. Is it more signage, maps, and plaques? More festivals? Maybe it’s funding for indie music venues and grants for local musicians.
But right now, unless you’ve got an idea for a mural, good luck getting a check for cultural investment out of city hall.
And hey, I get it. Our mystery (and misery) is part of our appeal. It’s a city that doesn’t beg you to love it. And that’s attractive!
But even in our own city, we don’t know enough about our cultural legacy, how it still impacts us and the world today.
An investment in arts and culture visibility is an investment in our own history.
And if we can’t handle that, then we’re not just failing to tell our story to the world — we’re selling ourselves short.
Ryan Patrick Hooper is the host of In the Groove on 101.9 WDET, Detroit’s NPR station (weekdays from noon to 3 p.m.).
This story originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Jan. 6.
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