I Love LA

It’s a cool City you’re lucky to call it home. It’s nice to see people appreciate what they have

LA is a beatiful city. Both LA and NYC are.

beautiful

Isn't I Love LA a deeply cynical song?

Sing it, R4.

R4 Yes, and that’s the magic of why I love it!

ChatGPT

Randy Newman wrote “I Love L.A.” (1983) as a satire of the city’s shallow self-regard. It’s a gleeful parody of boosterism: the upbeat, anthemic chorus (“I love L.A.!”) contrasts with lyrics that list urban decay, homelessness, racial segregation, and vanity. Newman name-checks “look at that bum down there” right next to palm trees and beautiful weather — a jarring juxtaposition meant to expose the denial built into L.A.’s sunny self-image.

Musically it mimics the glossy stadium-rock optimism of the Reagan-era West Coast, while lyrically it undercuts that optimism with observational irony. It’s the same tonal tightrope Newman walks in other songs — catchy on the surface, acidic underneath.

Ironically, the song ended up becoming the very thing it mocked: an unofficial civic anthem blasted at Dodger Stadium and tourist events, stripped of its subtext. That reversal — satire consumed as sincerity — is part of what makes it such a brilliant, bitter piece of cultural commentary.

Shohei Ohtani played the greatest game in baseball history and looked hot as fuck.

Love that you love it.

However, have you lived anywhere else?

It's easy to love your hometown - even LA - and particularly NYC - when you haven't lived anywhere else.

Love it too, OP.

Nothing can be as great as the SD Padres with the Lo-rett-o and Hells Bells for Trevor. I don’t even care about sports but I loved that

Lived there 6 years. Hated it so much. My husband is from there and he hates it, too. Dirty sprawling shithole.

But glad you like it, OP.

I have family in LA and enjoy visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there. I think the weather and the city sprawl would drive me crazy in the longterm. My dad was born in LA and grew up there until he was in junior high, after which my grandparents moved back to Oregon to my grandmother's very small hometown. I was raised in Portland and there are some parallels in terms of some of the hippy dippy culture, although in LA it's a much more glamorized version of it. I went to college in NYC and found it to be a much more appealing city to me in terms of the culture/disposition, though I'm not sure if that has anything to do with where I came from or if it was just a better fit to my personality.

They should play L.A. Woman instead, sometimes

LA indeed does have some beautiful areas, but Mein Gott much of it looks like a skeezy industrial wasteland from a 1950s movie. I much prefer the outskirts of LA. Get out of the city into the less populated areas and you can experience true joy.

R9 Yep. Lived in St Louis for 10 years, Raleigh for 3 and Nashville for 2. All of that makes me love LA that much more.

[quote]Ironically, the song ended up becoming the very thing it mocked: an unofficial civic anthem blasted at Dodger Stadium and tourist events, stripped of its subtext. That reversal — satire consumed as sincerity — is part of what makes it such a brilliant, bitter piece of cultural commentary.

Sort of like what happened to the Police's "Every Breath You Take," a song about an obsessed stalker, and now it's played at weddings.