NEWGUY562

Well the beach boys are one of the most influential artists of all time
pet sounds..all those sunny hits that made the kids happy..
smile...the influenced every group from the beatles to daft punk.

Electrophonic Tonic

I see how it is!

For the Beach Boys... Well, the only other bands I considered were the Doors and the Velvet Underground. I narrowed it down to those three because of the lack of good/important bands in the 1950's, those two were the best of the 60's, none of the 70's bands are good enough in my eyes, and I think it's still too soon to judge any bands that started in the 1980's or afterwards.

Initially I thought about who was the best out of those three, and the list came out like this. There was a definite order, but they're all very close.

1. VU
2. Doors
3. Beach Boys

But, then I thought about it a little more and my next thought about it was what qualities would I look for to represent my country and how relevant are they to my country.

The Velvet Underground are incredibly influential and have a tremendous, if small discography. Very much the same as the Doors, too. The Beach Boys have a vast, large discography that has a lot of quality but also some duds and misfires. In terms of relevance to Americans in general, the Beach Boys in their early days are uniquely American when they sing about cars, girls and summers on the beach. I also feel the genre of surf rock/music in relation to America is very close to the relation between British Invasion and the UK. It's something the world can easily identify with that country. And to see the Beach Boys grow into the band they became in the late 60's and early 70's and create music as deep and influential as the stuff the Doors and VU were making; makes me give my vote to the Beach Boys.

As for solo artist, I went through the same process with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Miles Davis. I'm not a huge fan of the Boss, but his sound is something that can be identified as uniquely American. Bob Dylan was very influential for his time and is as recognizable a name in music as you'll get. However, Miles Davis IS jazz and jazz is the most American genre of music, IMO.

Happy(,) Jack?

NEWGUY562

i totally agree with you on every level

Norg

for America ..... MIKE PATTON


because who else are u going to pick he ****z on everyone else Duh

Stephen

I might have to go with Nick Cave. The fact that he had to move to Berlin to get some recognition has to tell you something about our culture. You also have to love the fact that he convinced Kylie Minogue to perform I Should Be So Lucky as spoken word.

ladyislingering

I'm oddly unfamiliar with American popular music.. but when I think of America, I think of Buddy Holly and Elvis. They were two founding fathers of rock n' roll. (I prefer Buddy over the King but that's sort of irrelevant.)

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anticipation

fixed.

Howard the Duck

Old Automatic Garbage (OAG) I suppose

they sing in English and Malay, 2 predominant languages here, although they don't really sing in Chinese or Tamil, but I can't think of any band that sing in all four, besides the Alleycats, which were more of a pub band

they also have a slightly Britpop sound, that harkens to our heritage as a colony



just some editing - in true Malaysian spirit, they also never rehearse and are truly sloppy live

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Guernsey

Um......

Well that guy who formed Dreadzone was born here.

Er.......

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Goofle

Have to agree with Sneer's post regarding Radiohead. Other than The Bends I have never been a huge fan for whatever reason, but they are the stand out choice.

I think Blur also deserve a mention. They made a conscious effort to try and make British sounding music around the time when America had taken over the charts (according to Albarn at least) and I think they did a good job of creating popular music that was also of genuine value.

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