I grew up in a place like that in a time like that.. in the 70's and early 80's it was hard not to consider New York City to have been the world culture capitol.. things were just happening.. movies about it and filmed there, music pulsing out, disco, hip hop, then rap, the world seemed focused on New York, but somehow it jumped to Miami, and you could feel it, someone let the air out.. sure New York didn't become irrelevant, but it wasn't the capitol of the excitement anymore.. it then felt like Seattle stole it from Miami, etc etc.
I'm not sure if we know where it is and when until after it cools down and we realize, what the heck was that? that was awesome? but I'm going to try to track this around the world for a bit..
This list is speculation, from what I have gathered in my roaming. I'm open to suggestions.
World Culture Capitol by year:
London 1870-1880
Chicago 1881-1900
Paris 1920-29
San Francisco 1967-1972
New York City 1972-1982
Miami 1982-1987
Seattle 1990-1995
Berlin 1995-2000
Moscow 2000-2003
Shanghai/ Beijing 2003-2009
