British Music and Why America Can't Compete
- Thread starter MGS32
- Start date
-
Welcome to "The New" Wrestling Smarks Forum!
I see that you are not currently registered on our forum. It only takes a second, and you can even login with your Facebook! If you would like to register now, pease click here: Register
Once registered please introduce yourself in our introduction thread which can be found here: Introduction Board
I've heard of one direction. Not sure If I heard any of their songs or not..
Wannabe came out in 1996
ity:To me, oldies is 30+ years old. Any song 30 years or older is old.
While I do think that there have been a lot of great British acts (hell, Radiohead is probably my favorite band), to say the US can't compete isn't really right. You're neglecting whole genres from this conversation like Hip-Hop and R&B. I'll take a Kendrick Lamar, Outkast, or Lauren Hill album and stack it up to just about any great British album and would say it compares just fine.
And also, if you want to list Arctic Monkeys in the post-punk revival category, not only did that movement really kick off in the US, there are better bands that came through that scene before AM. As big of an early AM fan I am, The White Stripes, The Strokes, and Interpol's work came before them, and in my opinion is better and probably paved the way for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. And I get that you're a big fan of AM but to put them in the 'greatest of all time' conversation may be a bit of an exaggeration considering how mediocre a lot of people find their later music.
Jimi Hendrix, Outkast, Michael Jackson, Kendrick, Jay-Z, Elvis, Talking Heads, Kanye, Nirvana and the whole grunge scene, Chris Cornell, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, 2pac, Biggie, Nas, Metallica, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, Whitney Houston, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses, and a lot of celebrated 'underground' artists like Neutral Milk Hotel and Death Grips all come from the US to name a few. To say there's not even a comparison is really underselling the great music that's come out of the states over the years
And also, if you want to list Arctic Monkeys in the post-punk revival category, not only did that movement really kick off in the US, there are better bands that came through that scene before AM. As big of an early AM fan I am, The White Stripes, The Strokes, and Interpol's work came before them, and in my opinion is better and probably paved the way for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. And I get that you're a big fan of AM but to put them in the 'greatest of all time' conversation may be a bit of an exaggeration considering how mediocre a lot of people find their later music.
Jimi Hendrix, Outkast, Michael Jackson, Kendrick, Jay-Z, Elvis, Talking Heads, Kanye, Nirvana and the whole grunge scene, Chris Cornell, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, 2pac, Biggie, Nas, Metallica, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, Whitney Houston, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses, and a lot of celebrated 'underground' artists like Neutral Milk Hotel and Death Grips all come from the US to name a few. To say there's not even a comparison is really underselling the great music that's come out of the states over the years
The good to bad ratio for both countries is pretty equal.
The U.S. has more "good" in pure quantity.
The U.K. has better "good" music.
So it comes down to how many Nirvanas you need to equal one Beatles.
The U.S. has more "good" in pure quantity.
The U.K. has better "good" music.
So it comes down to how many Nirvanas you need to equal one Beatles.
I'd say 2.5 and I am more of a Nirvanas fan. Beatles just have history and fans that trump a lot of groups/bands today.
While the US still has a lot of good music... We are still to blame for the likes of Katy Perry, Kesha, and Soulja Boy (with many others)
But at least we can all blame Canada for Justin Beaver!
Most of all u metioned are pretty good groups here in America. The * groups are who all I like to listen to. And Solja Boy
Last edited:
I don't even know if I would go that far, especially taking into account great music since say 2000.
Outside of Kid A and Back to Black, I'm struggling to name any 'modern classics' that have come out of the UK this millennium. A lot of the best albums of recent times have been American like To Pimp a Butterfly, White Blood Cells, Elephant, Is This It, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, The Black Album, The Blueprint, Sound of Silver, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, MMLP, XXX all came out of America
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2016
- Messages
- 15,041
- Reaction score
- 232
- Points
- 0
- Location
- High Green Via Hillsborough
For the UK there was plenty of Modern Classics. Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not by Arctic Monkeys was voted as the 19th Best album of all time by NME which should show how highly people consider it, hell the first two singles from the album went straight to No.1 and the album was the fastest selling British debut album ever which are accomplishments basically unheard of for an indie band out of Sheffield. That along with Favourite Worst Nightmare are both considered modern classics, I don't really think people consider White Blood Cells as a modern classic, Is This It is undeniably one but even Elephant I'd have a hard time justifying that.
Plus the UK scene had a big resurgence recently so albums recently released are yet to be remembered as modern classics, plus a lot of being considered a modern classic is based on popularity an album like My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice is amazing but isn't well known, albums from Kendrick Lamar for example are largely popular so will be viewed differently than a lot of smaller bands across the pond. And even to counter your point on hip hop London has been a hub for hip hop since the turn of the century and has produced some amazing artists like Stormzy for example.
And lets say for example there were no true "Modern Classics" from the UK since 2000 (Which I counter argue in a second but for example) then you would be ignoring how British artists basically put down the foundation for most genres as we know right now, pretty much every Rock genre out there can be traced back to The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
Anyway here are some albums I'd consider Modern Classics:
Whatever People Say I Am, Favourite Worst Nightmare both by Arctic Monkeys
My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice
The Balcony by Catfish and The Bottlemen
For Crying Out Loud and Self Titled album by Kasabian
Royal Blood Self Titled album
Franz Ferdinand Self Titled Album
The Kooks: Inside In/Inside Out
Everything You've Come To Expect by The Last Shadow Puppets
Don't Believe The Truth by Oasis
Blackstar by David Bowie
That is just off the top of my head what I'd consider modern classics, I'm sure if I went through my records and my spotify I could find even more and then we're not even talking about genres I don't personally listen to much. You could say Royal Blood is debatable but the critical acclaim surrounding it leads me to think it will be highly regarded. Yeah sure the UK scene has struggled a bit particularly after Oasis split up but the post punk revival scene in the mid 2000s as well as newer bands such as Wolf Alice, Catfish and The Bottlemen etc and then I didn't even talk about Ed Sheeran who has taken the world by absolute storm I mean he headlined Glastonbury with just an acoustic guitar and I'll be honest his albums are pretty great and I think Divide will be considered a modern pop classic. Even bands like The 1975 who I think are absolute garbage will probably be held in high regard in the future due to their current popularity. I love The Strokes as much as the next guy but I definitely think Whatever People Say I Am is on equal par with Is This It, they are shockingly similar showing The Strokes influence on AM's work.
The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are very similar probably why I adore both of them, they both influenced an entire generation of musicians. Arctic Monkeys may have found more popularity but that is just part of the tragedy of The Strokes, through many factors including things like Ablert's heroin abuse The Strokes were never able to capitalise on the momentum of Is This It, Room on Fire is an excellent album but the harsh drop in quality going into First Impressions Of Earth is hard to deny.
Edit: I forgot to include The Libertines, one of the best bands to ever come out of the UK. Self titled would definitely be a Modern Classic.
Last edited:
Elephant is by far a Modern Classic, it was top 10 just about every end of the decade list for a reason. And I do think WPSITWIN is an amazing album, but 19th all time is a no. I don't mean to burst your bubble but NME is well known for overrating Oasis and Arctic Monkeys - they put A Certain Romance as like the 5th best song of the decade or something like that, and in most other ones it doesn't even crack the lists. They weren't necessarily unheard of because the British media had been hyping them up for a long ass time.
There's plenty of modern classics that have come out of the US that are 'less known' also. Every Fleet Foxes album, Fiona Apple's discography, like I mentioned before Neutral Milk Hotel and Death Grips are just some. Even onto hip-hop, I do think there's a reason why grime music has never truly kicked off outside of the US. It's a really niche genre and isn't as accesible here as others - and frankly, it's not as good as US Hip-hop. There's a reason Atlanta is the heart of hip-hop right now
While I will admit I forgot Blackstar, and maybe would put Franz Ferdinand and WPSIATWIN in the consideration, a lot of those certainly aren't classics. The Balcony is certainly not a well-received album, neither is any of the modern Oasis records outside of NME's dick-riding, EYCTE was a massive disappoint (was a fan of Age of the Understatement), and a lot of those other ones are just average alternative rock bands that won't end up really on any lists or have major influence down the road. I'd also add Kala by MIA to the list of modern UK classics, but outside of that I don't think any hold a candle to the great releases that have come out in recent times.