obviously foremost since the 1960s and rock music coming to the fore. Pink Floyd, Beatles, Depeche Mode
why are they all from England ?
why are they all from England ?
Why are the English so good at music-making?
- Thread starter Nani Nana
- Start date
The English language and a literary tradition maybe?
I like that you mention Depeche Mode before the likes of The Who, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.
How the hell can Coldplay, Radiohead and other wank bands be ahead of Joy Division?
If you mean English as opposed to other European countries, I'd say that sharing a language with the nation that started modern pop music (for a series of reasons: immigration, melting pot, black influence etc.) is a decisive factor. It couldn't have happened in Germany, France, Italy, Spain - all countries with popular music of their own that wasn't 'reinvented' in a new continent.
If you mean English as opposed to American, this is debatable and many would disagree but from my point of view I find British music to be more 'experimental' while Americans tend to repeat patterns, so I'd say maybe the British are artistically less conservative.
My tupence.
If you mean English as opposed to American, this is debatable and many would disagree but from my point of view I find British music to be more 'experimental' while Americans tend to repeat patterns, so I'd say maybe the British are artistically less conservative.
My tupence.
Radiohead aren't wank. Saying that, I like Joy Division alot also and they should be higher.urm...we're not...
Because we have piss poor weather and have to be stuck indoors for the majority of the year and need things to entertain ourselves with.
because our arms are longer than that of the french.
But they have bigger tongues.
This.
Because youth culture was much more vibrant in Britain than in continental Europe.
Youth culture in what sense? Didn't something happen in France 1968?
I guess I mean youth culture as a creative force. My experience of continental Europe is that they tend to value experienced creators whereas Britain likes to hype the 'next big thing'.
Another point would be that most of the music this thread is defining as 'good' is derived from the blues, which really grew amongst the black population in the US before being 'sanitised' for a mainstream white audience. As Britain has strong ties to the States it's not surprising that it influenced us most.
There's plenty of good music originating from all over the world.
From Africa's Fela Kuti and the whole afrobeat and Ghanaian funk scene to Ravi and Ananda Shankar out of Asia to the Thai 60's psychedelic movement to the Nederbeat scene to the whole funk, soul, jazz and blues movement that came out of America to Scandanavian bands like Royksopp, The Kings of Convenience and The Sugarcubes to French artists like Edith Piaf, Air, MC Solaar and Serge Gainsbourg, the whole Chicano rock scene, Santana, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the whole Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae scene, it goes on and on and on.
From Africa's Fela Kuti and the whole afrobeat and Ghanaian funk scene to Ravi and Ananda Shankar out of Asia to the Thai 60's psychedelic movement to the Nederbeat scene to the whole funk, soul, jazz and blues movement that came out of America to Scandanavian bands like Royksopp, The Kings of Convenience and The Sugarcubes to French artists like Edith Piaf, Air, MC Solaar and Serge Gainsbourg, the whole Chicano rock scene, Santana, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the whole Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae scene, it goes on and on and on.
I'd go with what Red-Wedge said. English/British music wasn't particularly brilliant before rock and roll, it probably took off here in part because it was the same language.
Not that early blues lyrics are particularly comprehensible even to a native speaker, mind...
Here come Maggie
Walkin' down the road...
Well it looks like Maggie, but she's
Walkin' kinda slow.
Still, you get the vibe, and that's the point
Not that early blues lyrics are particularly comprehensible even to a native speaker, mind...
Here come Maggie
Walkin' down the road...
Well it looks like Maggie, but she's
Walkin' kinda slow.
Still, you get the vibe, and that's the point
Apart from a few, they aren't good at it anymore, unless you count "Shes so lovely shes so lovely" as great music.
Still, if you look at the last twenty years, you're still talking about the likes of The Stone Roses, Primal Scream (if we're counting Scots), Prodigy, Massive Attack, Portishead and Radiohead. That's not as many great bands as there used to be but it's pretty good going compared to, say, Italy.
Few of those cant exactly be classed as only English with some of them having Scottish lead singers, might be based in the cities they are listed under but they should be classed as British acts due to the mix of nationalities involved. As i would like to see the reaction to someone calling Rod Stewart English considering he considers himself Scottish
Northern Ireland gave us The Priests.
God bless them.
God bless them.
Probably true, yet you must consider that ‘music sung in English’ has imposed itself as a sort of standard, so that the rest of the world is more receptive of music in a foreign language: that’s just how things are and anyway most people speak at least a bit of it.
English speakers probably are not so receptive to music sung in languages other than theirs and even if Radiohead and the Stone Roses are absolutely class, you’d probably find many interesting foreign acts if language were not a barrier.
Also, it’s simply not possible to promote non-English groups to world fame because their natural market is relatively small, whereas an English-speaking market is so big that any decent group will spread to the whole world in no time.
What I’m trying to say is that it's difficult to compare: there could be quality music everywhere but it’s highly unlikely that it’ll ever reach British or American ears, while the opposite is vastly more likely.
Well it's a really narrow band of what defines "good" music. In other words, you think rock and roll is good music and in that case, yes, the British better at it than other Europeans.
But what about classical music, or opera? I defy you to find any great number of decent pieces in those genres that Britain has produced. It's all continental Europe.
Also, the only thing the Brits are good at - rock and roll - the Americans do better.
But what about classical music, or opera? I defy you to find any great number of decent pieces in those genres that Britain has produced. It's all continental Europe.
Also, the only thing the Brits are good at - rock and roll - the Americans do better.
I think the dominance of English language in music is a lot to do with it, and that combined with a strong history of 'counter culture' in the UK, means we have been churning out great music for decades ...
The question should be 'why are so many bands that are recognised for being good from England?'
As others have pointed out.
As others have pointed out.
Of late, aside from Iron Maiden and Porcupine Tree, I haven't heard anything highly-regarded in England (Coldplay, Radiohead, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys) which falls in the same class as Floyd, Led Zep.
Since the advent of heavy metal and grunge, Americans succeeded England as the hub of quality rock music.
Since the advent of heavy metal and grunge, Americans succeeded England as the hub of quality rock music.
the drummer in porcupine tree is off the hook...not too fussed on the rest of them myself
Seems fine to me, but drums isn't what Tree is really about though, is it?
its the only part of them that stand out for me... but each to their own
or hiphop. i know there are some UK hiphop heads on here, but i'm sorry outside the US...hiphop is pretty gash. the best 'british' rapper is/was slick rick, and he left england when he was 10.
mind you some japanese are definately mental turnablists and south korea has an amazing b-boy/b-girl scene.
scratch perverts are pretty good on the 1's n 2's as well...
plus imo lowkey is the best brittish rapper by a distance and better than a lot of us ones as well...
im quite partial to french hip hop as well... very melodic and the language lends its self well to the flow
English being the Universal language IMO is a big factor in this.
Yeah, i say the last 10 years have been pretty horrible though. Still some good stuff out there, just not much.
The best actual language for hip hop is Spanish, for sure.
On what do you base it on though?
The annual Top 100 rates itself as “the most definitive and genuine list of its kind” as it’s based solely on the total number of weeks each contender has spent on the official UK Singles and Albums charts and not on arbitrary voting.
The artists are ordered according to who has spent the most weeks on the combined official UK singles and albums charts, and the list represents more than 50 years of chart music from 1952 to the present day.
so...UK and Ireland list looks like this.
1 Cliff Richard
2 Queen
3The Beatles
4 Elton John
5 The Shadows
6 U2
7 David Bowie
8 Rod Stewart
9 Dire Straits
10 The Rolling Stones
although not sure how old the list is ?
The artists are ordered according to who has spent the most weeks on the combined official UK singles and albums charts, and the list represents more than 50 years of chart music from 1952 to the present day.
so...UK and Ireland list looks like this.
1 Cliff Richard
2 Queen
3The Beatles
4 Elton John
5 The Shadows
6 U2
7 David Bowie
8 Rod Stewart
9 Dire Straits
10 The Rolling Stones
although not sure how old the list is ?
Cliff Richard, feck yeah
