Music: There's something about Jersey

You've heard the jokes on Letterman, "The Sopranos" and even pro football broadcasts. Miles upon miles of industrial smokestacks, the filthy turnpike through the wastelands, two NFL teams that won't even take the name of the state in which they play.

New Jersey, it's said, is the Armpit of America. But when it comes to music, Jersey is "the muscle of America," says Nick Jonas of the teen pop/rock trio the Jonas Brothers.

Per capita, the fertile Garden State has probably turned out more big-name music stars than any other state. The honor roll ranges from Paul Robeson and Count Basie to Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen to Whitney Houston and Lauryn Hill to My Chemical Romance and the Jonas Brothers. (See list.) Success has come in jazz, R&B, pop, rock, punk, hip-hop and even country (Eddie Rabbitt grew up in East Orange).

Why has Jersey been a musical hotbed? We asked several music types who grew up there, and each pointed to a variety of muscles being flexed.

• Geography. The densely populated Garden State is between two music centers -- New York City and Philadelphia. That gives Jerseyites inspiration as well as an inferiority complex.

"We grew up very close to New York, only minutes away," said Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres. "There's always been a little saying in Jersey: 'If you made it in New York, you made it worldwide.'"

• Ethnicity. Italians, blacks and Jews -- three ethnic groups that dominated the music industry -- "all interact in Jersey," said music historian and Jersey native Robert Santelli. "That's a very potent combination in popular music."

• Blue-collar values. Those pollution-spewing factories do have a positive impact by helping to instill a strong work ethic in Jerseyites.

"I think it's something about the rock 'n' roll scene about New Jersey and the hard workers that live there," said Kevin Jonas, who grew up with his brothers in Wyckoff, N.J., admiring the accomplishments of Springsteen and Bon Jovi.

Singer/songwriter John Gorka, now a Minnesota resident, got his start in bluegrass bands in his native Jersey. He definitely felt a nurturing environment. "There's a work ethic there that keeps people vital," he said.

• Pride of the underdog. Bon Jovi's Torres thinks there's something about the Jersey state of mind that fuels musicians. "It's more street and attitude," he says with the kind of panache and pride that led Bon Jovi to call its fourth album "New Jersey."

It's an underdog mentality that comes from being the butt of jokes and living in a culture-deprived state that, unlike New York and Philly, had no pro sports until the 1970s.

For pop-folk singer Suzzy Roche, New Jersey made her feel like she was born to run. "It was the kind of place I wanted to get out of," said Roche, who, along with her singing sisters Maggie and Terre, grew up in the "no culture" town of Park Ridge and moved to New York as soon as she could. "There's a sadness and longing, but a sense of humor about being the underdog. For me, New York was a bridge to life."

• Local heroes to look up to. Sinatra was a national treasure, though of course he had to leave Hoboken, N.J., to make it in New York. The Isley Brothers, whose success started in the early 1960s, lived in Teaneck, N.J. (they even named their record label T-Neck), but the real turning point was Springsteen in the mid-1970s. "He said: I'm from Jersey and I'm proud of it,'" Santelli says.

Roche agrees that the armpit inferiority complex started to dissipate after Springsteen "put Jersey on the map," as she put it. While she understands the influence of Tony Soprano (she went to the same high school as actor James Gandolfini), Springsteen "is the king of the state."

By staying in his home state, the Boss helped foster a rock scene on the Jersey shore. "By the end of the '70s, it was great," Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan said. "You could go to the clubs every night and you could jam with other bands and learn your craft. Jersey was a fruitful place to grow up."

That was a stark contrast to the Jersey of the 1950s and '60s, according to Santelli. There were vibrant musical neighborhoods then and street-corner pollination between ethnic groups, but it was hard to make it in the recording business.

Like Minnesotans going to see "A Prairie Home Companion," it's "become a ritual and almost a rite of passage for New Jersey baby boomers to take their kids to see 'Jersey Boys' in New York City to explain what proving yourself was all about," said Santelli, who now lives in Los Angeles (he's executive director of the soon-to-open Grammy Museum there). "Everyone in my family has seen 'Jersey Boys' on Broadway."

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719