Imago said:

He's beyond it, just like any great artist. The Beatles might be the greatest rock band but they don't indicate that England is better at Rock & Roll, just that one band was really great.

Someone mentioned money, and they're right. A country with money will produce more artists. The artists themselves may start out poor, but they will thrive in a country that has money to burn on arts, like America or England.

And I think Americans really believe that everyone listens to Justin and Ludacris. But in India they have their own superstars that we've never heard of. Even England has a whole other set of musical priorities.

NDRU said:

That's also something to think about.

In America, an artist sells 1 to 5 millions copies of a record and it's considered huge hit.

But there are 250 million Americans, right? And there are 800 million Indians. I mean, the market obviously has massive room for growth just by sheer numbers alone. But it isn't really growing here. So it must be related to economic potential. Or economic power.


But I don't think the beetles stack up to Ludacris and JaRule. I mean, Ludacris has managed to stay alive, and the beetles just don't fair well in that department. That must mean SOMETHING.

Imago said:

True, 50 Cent was shot more times than John Lennon!

That's because the shooter of 50 Cent was just as talentless a shooter as 50 Cent is an artist.

vainandy said:

he wasn't good enough for a proper assassin!

NDRU said:

Imago said:

you're so wrong ....
90% of all great music comes from the UK ...

The Americans bring the BLUES, FUNK and the GRUNGE ...
but further they're not that interesting.

Good Pop and Rock comes mainly from the UK
Shitty commercial music or music that drawns in it's own experiment comes from the USA

I do know I dislike the Americans for spreading stupid threads like this one ..
seems they're as ignorant as their presedent ... stupid F**K
[Edited 12/26/07 23:33pm]

Amazing.

ThataintFunky said:

and your president tony blair followed us like a lil dog in heat obeying his master...what does that make u?

mirrorbestfriend said:

... okay, maybe I shouldn't have bring those idiots in this thread
but I'm NOT from the UK, so I'm kind of indepedent ...

Still, most acts with any historical impact are from the UK

This has to be the most ignorant thread I've seen this year, irony notwithstanding.

Y'all need a Tripanning is all I'll say!

To get back to the original question...

"Does Prince, among other US musicians prove that Americans are just far far better musically than other nationalities?"

No, it probably means that you're American.

End of.

In fact, if I were to pick my big cultural influences in music this year, it would be sounds from India and Brazil.

Being "better" is a very subjective term, as we regularly prove on here, one man's Sign 'o The Times is anothers' Planet Earth.
However the most logical way to determine quality would be to argue that if something is more popular than something else then it is deemed "better" by a larger number of people.

Using the logic that the "best" of something is the one that more people like than anything else then using the top selling albums would help us find an answer.

(these figures vary slightly from site to site, but the order and album are almost always the same)


"Thriller" - Michael Jackson (60 million) AMERICAN
"Back In Black" - AC/DC (42m) AUSTRALIAN
"Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975" - The Eagles (41m) AMERICAN
"Saturday Night Fever" - (Soundtrack) (40m) mainly the Bee Gees so ENGLISH
"Dark Side Of The Moon" - Pink Floyd (40m) ENGLISH
"Come On Over" - Shania Twain (39m) CANADIAN
"The Bodyguard" - (Soundtrack) (37m) mainly Whitney Houston so AMERICAN
"Bat Out Of Hell" - Meat Loaf (37m) AMERICAN
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" - The Beatles (32m) ENGLISH
"Led Zeppelin IV" - Led Zeppelin (32m) ENGLISH
"Dirty Dancing" - (Soundtrack) (32m) no common artist
"Falling Into You" - Celine Dion (32m) CANADIAN
"Let's Talk About Love" - Celine Dion (31m) CANADIAN
"Rumours" - Fleetwood Mac (30m) ENGLISH
"Jagged Little Pill" - Alanis Morissette (30m) CANADIAN
"Titanic" - (Soundtrack) (30m) mainly orchestral with Celine Dion so CANADIAN
"Millenium" - Backstreet Boys (30m) AMERICAN
"1" - The Beatles (30m) ENGLISH
"Abbey Road" - The Beatles (30m) ENGLISH
"Bad" - Michael Jackson (29m) AMERICAN

I realise that alot of people are going to object to Celine or Whitney being in this group but there are 29,999,000 other people out there who would seem to disagree.

This gives a total of:
ENGLAND and AMERICA both have 234m
CANADA 162m
AUSTRALIA 42m


And I promise I didn't know that before I totalled them up!
But it seems England and America are the "best" musicians.

Of course if you now want to discuss the fact that America has a population of over 300 million while England has only around 50 million feel free...

viewaskew said:

I agree with you...I think it`s really arrogant to say than Americans are the best at music...I`m european and there`s so much talents around here...Actually there`s loads more variety in EU(coz culture differences)than in the US....I know Zappa and Hendrix are great but what`s about YELLO(Germany),RITA MITSOUKO(France),MUSE(England),SINEAD O CONNOR(Ireland),MERCAN DEDE(Turkey),MANO NEGRA(Spain) and the list is rather long...But are you interested in these artists in America?...I guess not,you prefer listening to JT , Britney or other pretentious poor acts...But I reassure you,I`m a big PRINCE fan!
[Edited 12/27/07 5:21am]

Well, I just thank God for Motown, which America gave the world. I can live without the Beatles, Rolling Stones (over rated, Mick Jagger is one of the worse singers and dancers I have ever seen) and Led Zepplin, but I don't think I would ever able to live without the likes of Marvin, Stevie, The Supremes and even the young Michael Jackson. You just wouldn't get such talent from anywhere else in the world.

If we were to depend on Europe, especially England we probably wouldn't have heard of the likes of Aretha, James Brown, Prince, Hendrix, Ella, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and the list goes on. We would be stuck with white rock/pop music, which some people wouldn't mind but I would have minded very much.
[Edited 12/27/07 5:28am]

Imago said:

You do know that the generals forced Bush to waterboard those motherfuckers, don't you?

Rococomojo said:

This post is anti-Prince and anti-American.


Does anyone agree?

Imago said:

Yeah, if he'd specified "Bollywood" instead of just "India" that would have been a different story...

I don't see anything on that list so great except for the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack and I bought it mainly for "Disco Inferno" by The Tramps, "Open Sesame" by Kool and the Gang", and "Boogie Shoes" by KC and the Sunshine Band.....all of which are Americans. The Bee Gees were great but they weren't what I bought the album for.

There is no funk on that list, so yes, we Americans are much better. The only Americans I see on the list are Michael and Shitney and England can claim those two if they want them.

govinda said:

its not arrogant if its true

Imago said:

Indeed. I'll alert the websherrif and Condoleeza Rice. They'll know what to do.

Running. Fast. Now.

(Probably towards the, "Better built, by Black musicians" thread)

Which, actually might be more valid!

ToraToraDreams said:

no please don't. I don't want to piss Simon Cowell off. He's saving American television.

Loada bollocks.

It's just that the rest of the world has to suffer whatever the country spews out due to the mega corporations with lots of p.r. bucks to spend.

There are many talented musicians / artists all over the world, a small proportion of those reside in the states.

Imago said:

Great Point!

whatsgoingon said:

Everything he said.

petski said:

Well said, despite the fact these points had already been mentioned in the thread.

And yet someone was still naieve enough to put this.....(see below)
[Edited 12/28/07 11:08am]

Bishop31 said:

Incredible!! You really think you should be thanking God or glorifying America for the amazing label that was Motown?

A label that, as late as 1959, was the first label to be owned by an African-American - a by-product of centuries of intolerant and prejudiced attitudes and mis-treatment against black people in the US (the same actions that, in fact, inspired the blues, soul and r'n'b, an artistic reaction to persecution).

You claim it as though it is through America's greatness that this label and the talented artists that were on it existed, yet its a far more deep-rooted opposite that brought it about. Things would have been worse if "we were to depend on Europe, especially England"? Well, England abolished slavery in 1772 with most of Europe following suit pretty quickly. The good old US of A? Almost a century later - 1863! So, whilst you might be proud that America "produced" such a grand musical legacy, I'm sure the oppressed would rather not have gone what they had to endure to get there.

In the same vein, you quote that we would not have got to hear the likes of Hendrix if it were left to England. Get your heads in the music books and realise that America didn't recognise Jimi's talent and that his break and initial fame came from him moving to England where he was acknowledged - he just came back to you for the $$!!
[Edited 12/28/07 11:24am]

Same here. I don't know how I overlooked whatsgoinon's post the first time. I can definately live without the English rock acts or even the American rock acts for that matter. However, the funk came later after the black American acts of the 1960s, and without them, there would have never been no funk. Actually, if it weren't for the black American artists, there would be no rock either, including British rock.

I could be wrong but, out of all the early explorers of America such as the Spanish, French, and English....wasn't it the English that brought the slaves to America? Seems to me that England was the one the started the slavery problem in America to begin with. I could be mistaken but I think that's what I learned in school.

Mindflux said:

England did abolish slavery but the English along with the spainish and Portuguese were also the pioneers of slavery, after the Arabs. It was British ships that went to Africa first and took their "cargo" to America, so lets not pretend England never played a part in such evil. If the English abolished slavery then it is only right because they started it. But this ain't about slavery, its about music. And although Hendrix may have found fame in the UK first, the others I mentioned didn't. All those artists I mentioned from Aretha to Prince were born, breed and founded in the good USA not in England.

Now, I haven't got anything against British artists, the likes of the Beatles (even though IMO they are overrated) were good song writers. I have great admiration for groups and artists like Queen, George Michael and Elton John, but I do prefer Jazz, soul, funk and dance and when I think of the artists that have truely capitivated me they are usually from this genre and they are usually from the USA not from England.

The thing about it when the so-called music experts talk of great music they usually refer to white pop/rock music, all you need to do is look at Rolling stone magazine, so if you adhere to rock music being the best music then yes you will probably believe Europe has the best music, but if you want to look beyond that then IMO America wins hands down.
[Edited 12/28/07 12:23pm]