History Main / SmallTownBoredom

* Mikasalla in GoldenSun: The Lost Age. The locals even tell you that if you're looking for someone, the best place to look is somewhere else.

* The song "Small Town" from Music/LouReed and Music/JohnCale's eulogy for AndyWarhol, ''Songs For Drella''.

** Inverted HARD in Michigan, where the fastest growing towns in the state are all boring bedroom communities 45 minutes from anywhere of import.[[/folder]]

* ''{{Persona 4}}'': Said boredom is such [[spoiler:that it drives someone to murder]]. This was also a key point in Shadow Yosuke and Shadow Yukkiko's dialogues. [[ShadowArchetype Shadow Yosuke]] taunts Yosuke about how boring the town is to him, while Yukiko's shadow mentions how much she hates the town and just sits on her '''ass''' waiting for her prince to come rescue her from it.

* Inverted in some areas of the American Rust Belt(particularly Michigan)where young inner suburbanites and city dwellers go from universities in the bigger cities to high-paying jobs in the exurbs.

A teenager growing up in a small rural town wants to get away from it all, to the big city, or abroad, anywhere but the boring old Small Town. Characters that come from this background generally [[JumpedAtTheCall Jump At The Call]]. If they don't, expect the [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive the Call to come looking for them anyway]].

* "Dry County" by Music/TheB52's, on the album ''Cosmic Thing''.

* Kelly Clarkson - "Breakaway", which is all about wanting to break away from the small town where she grew up.
* "Subdivisions" by {{Rush}}.

* Much of ''Big Black's'' work, such as "Cables" and "Kerosene", deal with how people alleviate this trope.
* "Dry County" by The B-52's, on the album ''Cosmic Thing''.
* The song "Small Town" from Lou Reed and John Cale's eulogy for Andy Warhol, ''Songs For Drella''.

* "Kerosene" by BigBlack is a particularly dark example. It's about someone who decides the only cure for his boredom a combinatoin of sex and fire.
* John Mellencamp's "Small Town" is one of the more notable aversions of this. Its narrator was born, lives, and will "prob'ly die" in the same small town, as is perfectly okay with that.

* Luke Skywalker in ''StarWars'' who's stuck in his families moisture farm.

* George Bailey from ''ItsAWonderfulLife'' wants nothing more than to leave Bedford Falls forever. Life intervenes.

* In ''TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', while Clarice Starling is interviewing a girl in Belvedere, Ohio, the girl asks her:

* The aptly-named "Small Town Bringdown" by TheTragicallyHip.
* "Whistle Down the Wind", by TomWaits, is about someone who feels this but can't make himself leave. It's implied that he's contemplating suicide.

* Corrie Swanson in the ''Literature/AgentPendergast'' novel ''Literature/StillLifeWithCrows.

* Natalie from the musical ''AllShookUp''.

* Steve Earle's "Someday".

* ''Every Day Is Like Sunday'' by Music/{{Morrissey}}, about a seaside town they forgot to close/bomb down.

->--'''Music/{{Journey}}''', "Don't Stop Believin'"

->--'''Journey''', ''Don't Stop Believin'''

* ''Texas In My Rearview Mirror'' by Mac Davis. He inverts the trope in the final verse, though, realizing that he was happiest in the small town.
* ''Thunder Road'', ''Born to Run''... Basically, a lot of stuff by Bruce Springsteen.
* ''Every Day Is Like Sunday'' by Morrissey, about a seaside town they forgot to close/bomb down.

* While the song itself isn't about it, but the song "White Kids Love Hip-Hop" by [[MCChris mc chris]] has a spoken-word monologue by [[WesternAnimation/TheBrakShow Andy Merril]] along these lines.

* Luke Skywalker in ''StarWars''.

* Corrie Swanson in the Literature/AgentPendergast novel ''Literature/StillLifeWithCrows.
* The book TheDarkSideOfNowhere starts out with the protagonist thinking like this. Then he discovers that he and most people in the town are actually a race of aliens gearing up for a full-scale invasion.
* The mother in the novel AnywhereButHere.

* The main reason Zoe in ''SavingZoe'' decides to try to become a model. [[spoiler: It leads to her death.]]

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has this on a planetary scale. After Kairi falls from the sky and appears on the Destiny Islands, Riku [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor becomes obsessed with learning what's out there]]. Several games later, it turns out that the franchise's uber-villain started out with the same idea.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Riku wants to get off his home island]]. Several games later, it turns out that the franchise's uber-villain got started out the exact same way.

* In ''KingdomHearts'', [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Riku wants to get off his home island]].

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