Can Motor City become Music City? Does it want to?

The Magic Stick is not the kind of place you just stumble upon. You have to know about it. A pool-hall-cum-live-music venue, it is on the second floor of a16-lane bowling alley near the downtown campus of Wayne State University - replete with a disc jockey and a mirror ball.

But if music critics and "buzz" creators are to be believed, this is the spot for the next big thing in music.

The Stick and the bands that play here are giving Detroit - long known as the nation's leading repository of urban blight - a reputation as top musical hothouse. The city is even drawing comparisons with that early-'90s music mecca, Seattle.

At a time when pop charts are dominated by navel-baring blondes and boy bands still exploring the mysteries of shaving, serious music fans see Detroit's grittiness as a plus. But the more entertainment mavens sing the praises of Detroit, the more the city's insular music scene seems to agonize over the perils of success - especially the trappings of corporatization.

"Is this the next Seattle? I don't know, it could be anywhere, and if the corporate powers say so, that's what it is," says Neil Yee, who until recently ran one of Detroit's best-known clubs, the Gold Dollar. Mr. Yee decided to get out of the club business in part because the city is becoming "too normal." "We're getting a Starbucks down the street," he frets.

All the attention is not entirely new. In the past decade or so, Detroit has become widely recognized for its role in the development and growth of techno, an electronic, beat-driven form popular at dance clubs. Some consider Detroit techno's birthplace: Derrick May, the "father" of the form, still lives here, and the annual Detroit Electronic Music Festival over Memorial Day weekend draws roughly 1 million fans from around the world each spring.

The city also has a strong foothold in rap in the person of controversial Grammy-winner Eminem, who grew up in suburban Detroit and is still based there.

But it is rock 'n' roll, still the most mainstream genre, that generates the real buzz. Enter the White Stripes, a guitar/drum duo that play a raucous, blues-punk brand of rock that has won the hearts of critics here and abroad, stirred the interest of record labels, and caught the eyes of talent bookers. It's the recognition of the White Stripes, slated to appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman" in October, that has called attention to Detroit's "garage music" scene and its raw sound.

While some here scoff at the idea of a specific Detroit sound, others acknowledge that there is a stripped-down, underproduced, thrashing quality that has links to Detroit's punk-music roots and, in particular, a short-lived but influential band called the MC5. (The MC5, which emerged in the late 1960s and preached free love and anarchy, was never commercially successful - and proudly so.)

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