Few cities of Brighton's size have shaped British music so consistently across so many genres. The Brighton Indie sound, with its jangly guitars and post-punk melodic drive, gave rise to a wave of successful acts including The Kooks, The Maccabees, and Blood Red Shoes, while Norman Cook built the big beat genre's reputation on the city's club scene before Skint Records signed him as Fatboy Slim. That lineage runs deep: the Brighton Dome hosted ABBA's Eurovision victory in 1974, welcomed David Bowie across five shows during the Ziggy Stardust era, and staged some of the earliest jazz performances in the UK through the Southern Syncopated Orchestra in 1921. Today, venues from the grassroots Hope and Ruin to the iconic seafront Concorde 2 sustain that momentum, while The Great Escape Festival, running annually since 2006, turns the city into a showcase for over 450 emerging artists each May.
