I have no idea why people keep saying stupid things like this. Nationality does not a band, good or bad, make.

Oh but it does!!!

You've convinced me.

What are the requirements. Obviously to live in a society where you have access to the right influences and opportunities. What comes next is talent and that transcends nationality.

OK, nationality is no guarantee. It's no coincidence though that the best, are for the most part either British or American. Also both these countries have an abundance of musically talented people.
To the point of embarrassment.

Or would you rather me say...Latvian artistry and Bolivian imagination?

as above but

LED ZEP,
BLACK SABBATH,
BEATLES,
OASIS,
INFADELS
etc etc

brits win

Love the way you added the second bit after I posted. I agree completely with it by the way.

Sorry I did add more to my previous post while you were typing. In sum, I would have to say that the reason why these two countries produce the best rock bands is because of the language and opportunity similarities. But when it comes down to it I think talent trancends nationality.

Rock bands are rife the world over and for the most part don't cut it in the same way. I understand your point, but I do believe that nations are like people and have characteristics, traits.

America=music
Britain=music
Brazil=football
France=food
Germany=no sense of humour etc. ;)

Lets put it another way

Name one country the size of the UK to have come out with so many top selling & Influencial acts

not entirely right, but Japan?

hold on,

japan, top selling, influencial acts, yea ok....

pull the other one!!

not popular in europe but in western america their selling big, and in bigger cities, but japan as it self keep it artist to itself

for instance look up:
Malice Mizer
Dir en Grey
Dispairs Ray
Plastic TRee
Pycho clemu

and a feww others, it form is Jrock, the bands and talents are near bottomless

influencial...

but who are they influenceing, how can they influence anybody if no one has heard of them??

mana of malice mizer created a whole new gothic division in the ranks of goth

he started both the gothic lolita and gothiv aristocrat looks not popular amoung both european and american gothic cultures;) i should know i'm one of them

kyo is one of the biggest visual kei sing/songwriters out there with the wild things he does+vocals he uses her ties with gackt camuei as japans best all time male singer, and he's a rocker not a poppsie!

theres differnt types of goth??

my goodness where have i beeen hiding all these years!!

That's a big part of the influence and why the US & UK have domintated the scene for so long, while you see a lot of little subgenres like death metal coming out of countries like sweden and germany. I guess it becomes nationlistic in the sense of the musicians and their fans and their identities. Music cannot stand without identity. It's just too bad there isn't much talent in that equation right now for any country at least not that I've heard yet insofar as new musicians.

I might also add reading bits of the other conversation that Japanese are great mimics of American culture for certain things like music. In that sense their identities tend to ruin the sincerity of such things.

That really doesn't prove anything.
You have neglected to list the American bands that are just as creative/great/influential/experimental/groundbreaking.

They've been listed a million times, so I do not feel the need to produce another list.

The only reason no one's heard of many bands from Japan is because Westerners (for lack of a better term) tend to focus more on North American and European (and even then it's only a few select countries) music, and don't tend to search out music elsewhere.

I said early on in the thread that Japan had a great music scene right now, and I stand by that. I also named France and Germany, if I remember correctly.

Croatia=adidasss...:)

Sweden has a big music scene too.

I've finally had time to look over the whole thread. And it seems to me, the Brit-Side has mentioned only musicians in the vein of rock or pop. While these bands were very good (Beatles, Who, Oasis... etc) Rock and Pop aren't the only two music genres out there. In my personal opinion, there are about 4 or 5 genres that the Brits can't even hold a candle to.

Rap.
Hip-Hop.
Country. (Southern Rock, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk included)
Jazz.
Funk.
Heavy Metal. (the Brits could put up a fight here...)
Emo and all of it's subgenres.
Ska.

Just to name a few... Americans have dominated these categories since their inception. Now, I don't know everything about the British music scene, so if you think I'm missing a huge band in one of these categories from Britain - please let me know. So while you may do rock, and it's many sub genres well... you are simply stuck to that corner of Musicdom. Looking into the popular/influential/pioneers of these genres, you might - MAYBE - be able to pick out one British group (save for heavy metal) - but even then, the one or two groups wouldn't be able to match up to the absolute american rule over those genres... Hell... Country IS American. Also, the Brits would have nothing to build on if the Americans didn't create it to begin with.

In conclusion: While the Brits do the things they do well (not necessarily better) - There are certain genres that they have yet to even explore - let alone claim to be better than an American counterpart.

Which would you rather have?

One robot that does 2 things very, very well.

Another robot that does 7 things very, very well, including the 2 things the first robot did. Not only does it do the other robots specialities, but just as well if not better than the first robot.

Get it? Now, those numbers are purely random so don't ask me what the 2 things are and be stupid. So I think that fact alone raises America here. The Brits do a few things very well, but don't even begin to sprawl out and hold sway over the amount of genres that the Americans do.

I know personally I'd want both robots.

Edit: No that was no sarcastic. And Yes, i did think that was a well written responce.

Rap and Hip Hop relies on sampled music borrowed from Funk/Soul/Rock.
Country music is rooted in the folk traditions of the British Isles. In the new world, those roots became entangled with the ethnic music of other immigrants and African slaves.
Jazz has it's roots in African folk music, call and respond.
Funk is a derivative of Soul, again black.
Heavy Metal evolved through rock 'n' roll, again no prizes for guessing where that stems from.
Emo...ditto.
Ska...get the gist.

Forget the UK and the USA.
I think ALL NATIONS should bow down to the black African immigrant.

Right track. With that same syllogism we can also conclude that all music was rooted from the first person to make a beat with a stick on a tree trunk. Reducing it that far down is futile and inane.

OMG LOLZ!!!!111/// YOU GUYZ ARE TEH ST00PID. ALL MUSIC IS ROOTED IN MESOPOTAMIA! UKANDUSA SUCKZZZORZ MESOPOTAMIA HAD FIRST HUMAN CIVIZLATIONS OMG LOLZOZLZZZ, ROOTS IN F3RTILE CRESCENT OMGOMGOMGROFLMAO.

That's what you sound like. :p

Crowe, I'm mearly pointing out a valid opinion. After reading this thread nobody has previosly pointed out the contribution black Africans have made to modern music. I happen to think it's important.

I've quoted part of your post because I think it's immature and inane...


...that's what you sound like.

I'd say that the Brits do rave, trance, drum'n'bass, bangra, house, techno, electronic pop, girlband pop etc. better than the Americans do. I'm not even sure that I've HEARD of American bands which play these styles!

Putting Country into the list is pretty ridiculous. There is no reason or use for much country music in Britain, where would you play it? There are no ranches in Britain! No cowboys, no cowgirls and no wide, lonely plains. I could put Northern Soul, Britpop and Pub Rock into a list and say 'the Brits do it better than you'. Its true, we do, but those musical styles are probably as unimportant to Americans as country music is to Brits, so it holds no weight in an argument.

I would agree with rap, hip-hop and funk (probably jazz too) as those are styles which Brits would like to be good at, but mostly aren't. With ska and emo, maybe its more of a publicity or awareness thing, most of the better bands I've heard in these genres have been British.

And heavy metal? Come off it, there are loads of great heavy metals bands in Birmingham alone and, again, most of the best bands I've heard have been British. Metal seems to be more of a tribal thing, so its maybe not surprising that Americans would not be so aware of the British metal and vice versa.

Basically said what I was going to.

I would add that most black people in the UK are decended from Jamaica & the carribean. Most black people I know are much more into things like Reggae , Trip Hop , Garage & Drum & Bass rather than American hip hop/rap.

It`s interesting to note when bands like Public Enemy , De La Soul and Run DMC played their first gigs in the UK the audience was prodomenently white.

As for country , well to me thats just American folk music , Britian has it`s own folk music.I can`t imagine someone from Scunthorpe singing about riding his horse across the open plains & being taken seriously some how.

Ska? are you kidding me , we did that over 20 years ago with bands like The Specials , Madness , The Beat , if anything the U.S. is playing catch up there. Ska here has evolved into trip hop , garage & drum & bass.

As for Emo , well thats just a sub genre of punk , and we know who invented that movement & don`t give me that New York crap either.

Yeah.. ska and reggae definetely go to the Brits.

Heavy Metal was born in England, anyone who disagrees with that is simply wrong.

You can also add prog rock, pyschedelic rock, britpop and post punk to that list, all of which have had some kind of impact on american music...And while punk argubably began in the states with The Ramones, it exploded in the UK with The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Buzzc0cks, The Damned...Thats where it became a worldwide phenomenon.

Yes, in Birmingham in fact, Lep Zepellin and Black Sabbath... ;) (well, so I'm told, I'm not actually from here).
Plus, most of the 'punk' bands which we hear over here from America are actually the 'pop-punk' bands that you guys so despise (yes, most Brits would probably say Greenday, Sum41 and Blink182 represented american punk). Whatever the 'real' american punk music is, it never really gets over here.

Judas Preist :)

Both are as much American genres as they are British.

Punk didn't begin with the Ramones, but it did start in the US. It doesn't matter where it became a "worldwide phenomenon." That's like saying Nirvana started Grunge because they're the ones that made it big first.

And Post-Punk isn't even close to being an exclusively British genre.

Well I could just as easily say The Beatles started grunge because of Helter Skelter.

There was no punk movement in the U.S. , it`s a myth. Punk started in the UK with the Clash , Pistols etc etc , The bands in the U.S. latched onto the punk thing AFTER the success of it in the UK.The only U.S. 'punk' band to release anything before the UK movement were the Ramones and they had very little influence on British punk.

And if anyone mentions the Velvet Underground as the founders of punk, I'm gonna schiz...

So you're telling me that The Stooges, New York Dolls, Modern Lovers, The Velvet Underground, MC5, and Rocket from the Tombs aren't Punk, or didn't have any influence on it all? Riiight.

They had influence , but thats not the same thing

nobody ever listened to the Velvet Underground and said 'hey what a great punk rock band they are'

Bands like Roxy Music , Hawkwind , Can & Bowie had influence on it too , shall we start calling those bands punk as well?

Because when the Velvet Underground formed there was no name for the music they played.

Nobody considered Rites of Spring Emo in the 80s, but now they're recognized as its founders. What do you say to that?

Forget the Velvet Underground, they were considered Avant Garde at the time. As for the New York Dolls, managed in 1975 by Malcolm McClaren who tried to revive a failing band repackaged them as born again communists, for the shock value, it failed.

Realising that shock value was gold, managed the Sex Pistols...safety pins, spikey hair, anarchy, anti establishment...the rest is history.