i cant really say nga mas nindot ang cebu kay sa manila... if u think about artistic leanings, daghan bands didto nga artsy fartsy kaayo (Helen, Late Isabel, Up Dharma Down, etc--i dont know why female fronted ako examples--)..They also have a lot of electronic artists, (Drip, Bagetsafonik, Morse, Squid 9), Daghan kaayo bug-at, like skychurch, Cheese, sub-culture, Dako sad ilang punk ug reggae scene, (although wala gihapoy kalupig sa atong reggae scene bisan asa)... There's a lot of good bands in manila that are really good, even better than most if not all of our bands here..
Pero i still believe that ang cebu dili sad nimo ma-bangbang kay we, as a whole, know good music when we hear it.. That's why cebu is a testing ground for the "pop" market... Kung ganahan ang usa ka banda mu-sikat, kinahanglan sila mu tukar sa cebu.. Bands like Slapshock, freestyle, southborder, urbandub, jr.kilat and dice and k9, had wonderful audience/listener reception here first before making it big in manila...
Let's not say right away that cebu is better than manila, because face it, mas dako kaayo ang population didto.. However, just think of it this way, we've made so much noise in the national scene that whenever a band from cebu or down south invades manila, the audience always expects a really fresh sound..
Lastly, a musician from a manila band told me this very flattering observation, he thinks that there's more talent per square inch here in cebu than in manila.. hmmm.. makes u think..