Which UK city has the best punk rock/hip-hop scene?

So, I'm from California and I'm doing a UCAS application. So far, I'm applying to University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, and King's College London. But I'm not sure where else to apply.

I have heard that Manchester has a good music scene, but my dad said that Manchester is not the greatest city. He seemed pretty negative about it.

I think London would have a great music scene of course, since it's such a massive city with a huge population and tons of creative people, it's full of resources and venues, etc. The only thing is I am not sure if doing a 3-year university is a good idea since I was also told that students in England are a year older when applying to uni and I would have to be at a college sophomore level. Is that even true or is doing 3-year not even an issue?

Also, I know there isn't a huge chance of this but I am scared of terror attacks in London.

So after London, what are the best cities in the Uk with...
- Good punk rock, alternative rock and hip hop scenes
- Good public transit
- Good scene for young artists who are trying to start new projects. My fear with London is that I would be a tiny fish in a big sea starting from scratch.

How is Glasgow's music scene? Is Edinburgh's scene good at all? I've heard that Edinburgh's scene is kinda small and also dying. How hard is it to get from Edinburgh to Glasgow if I tried to go to Edinburgh and then do music stuff in Glasgow (regularly)?

And what other Unis should I apply to, since I have 2 more spots on my UCAS application?

no-one in the UK likes those genres. we are intelligent over here

Not even true, not an indication of intelligence, and not even what I asked for. Honestly why even respond..?

you asked for the opinions of englishmen

I thought Englishmen had manners

Too many movies, mate. We're not all sophisticated and eloquent

Haha I know, I was just trying to poke fun at them for being stereotypically pretentious. I've been to the UK (albeit only London) and it seems to have all kinds of people, as does California.

Well, to answer your original question, there's not much of a punk scene around. Closest you're gonna get is Margate which has a bit of a mod scene and they're all into ska-punk. As for hip hop, that'll be the less affluent parts of London, but you risk getting stabbed or mugged for your iPhone.

Hmm. Well, I have a pretty broad music taste but there's definitely a bunch of UK bands that I like, but it is hard to describe some of their sounds without subgenres that people might not be too familiar with.

To name a few: Mogwai (Glasgow), Sneaker Pimps (Hartlepool), Gorillaz (London), Placebo (London), Arctic Monkeys (Sheffield), Basement (Ipswich), Pink Floyd (London)

By hip-hop I don't really mean rap, probably more like trip hop which was apparently invented in the UK, but that was the 90's so I dunno if there's really a scene for that anymore. The most notable UK bands for me would be Mogwai (post-rock), Placebo (post-punk, alternative), and Sneaker Pimps (trip hop), although again they were all formed in the 90's.

None of those are punk-rock though Generally, most places in the UK are accepting of different genres of music these days (wasn't always this way by any stretch, you'd have been bullied for being into any kind of metal or rock a decade or two ago aha). Wherever you live, many different pubs and clubs have weekly or monthly events for specific genres of music.

I mean Basement is very punk and Placebo and Mogwai have a bunch of post-punk stuff but yeah I think of metal and screamo as being more of a Scandanavian thing for whatever reason?

I mean
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/files/2015/10/metal-map.jpg

Probably most cities in the UK would have a scene for rock, idk I didn't think people got bullied for liking rock in the UK though? The UK has had a pretty rich rock history

Maybe my best shot would be looking for the city that has a lot of variety given that I'd wanna blend genres. And focus on the quality of the overall music scene/venues/resources etc.

Thank you for the advice by the way