Id say the States by a long long way and Im British! One thing I can't stand about some British music is the fact that quite a few British songwriters get hung up on their Britishness and feel they have to keep going on about it. Ive always hated Blur for this, this "blimey guvnor, it sure is a lavely mornin'" crap that rears its head in their music. Even the Kinks, one of the seminal British bands, fell victim to this later on. One of the things I like about American music is that a lot of it isnt about mommas apple pie and going to the ball park. Some American songwriters do that like Springsteen but I don't find it as irritating cause I don't think he's reducing the States to a parody of itself when he does it.
Its reared its head again recently with the Libertines and all of these crappy punk revivalist bands. Theres a few British bands I like (Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, the Slits plus a few more) and one of the things I like about them is that you wouldnt know they were British from listening to them.
Besides that just about all of my favourite songwriters, bands, comedians, actors, writers and directors are American. American's just tend to have more balls.
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There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall
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