Music is a little off the beat of the Business Press blog but we couldn’t resist this social commentary and musical criticism in the New York Times. Editorial observer Nicholas Kulish notes what some local observers have been saying for a long time: Las Vegas is getting to be a lot like the rest of the country. Our social betters on the coast had better stop looking down on us.

The big show by Panic! at the Disco and fame of the other local band, The Killers, is only the beginning. The Strip is no longer the place that music goes to die when it’s out of fashion. We’re also finally making some of our own. Although the arrival of Prince and the big Celine show may really be second acts.  (Of course, you wouldn’t want to push that too far. Plenty of golden oldies like Jack Jones and Debbie Reynolds still show up at local showrooms, albeit those more likely to serve the Sun City crowd than the typical tourist.)

And moving on from the music scene, Kulish notes that we’ve gone way beyond the sunbelt resort stereotype. Less than 25 percent of the population works in the tourist industry and the city now has the first tentative signs of high art and Joel Robuchon even opened a restaurant in Las Vegas before New York. "The arrivistes are already there. Better get used to it," Kulish concludes.