Please don't bother to write inflammable responds to this post unless you have read and understood the whole writing
- altough this prohibition might result in this thread receiving the first negative count of responds in the history of the Internet.


Last week I started a thread called "My very short anti-American rant" just to chart the overall sentiments towards possible inclusion of this writing in the Music: Non-Prince forum. The thread posed two questions: "Why am I forced to listen to American music everywhere I go?" and "Why aren't Americans forced to listen to our music?" Here, in it's abbreviated form (for the actual writing was intended for a completely different site) is the next phase where I try to dissect the whole subject a bit further - yet I still can't give fullsome answers to either question. Yes, I'm that lazy.

So let's get started: a while ago I was watching the UK TOP40 on the German video channel VIVA - you know, I like to watch the charts just in case I would see some old friends finally making it there. Oh, and I kind of like the British music too... Needless to say it all got me a bit infuriated as I was watching it, because in the presentation itself they were showing just videos by American artists' entries and neglecting to show any videos by British acts. Seriously they had chosen about ten videos to be broadcasted and all of them were American, not a single British video made the programming. Wasn't this supposed to be the UK charts? Then why did they give all the airtime solely to the Americans? Why is this is same phenomenon occurring everywhere?

It would be tempting just to blame it all on the commercial power of major record companies and radio stations with their much loathed playlists, but you just can't escape from the cultural aspects entwined with the whole process. This all probably has less to do with sheer capitalism than we might think inititally as it also has a lot to do with outright nationalist aims. You'd think a really good businessman would be able to harness the local potential before transporting the work force from a whole different continent.

Major record companies are huge multi-national corporations and each territorial branch has its own share of homegrown artists they have to promote the best they can, because those artists still bring in the biggest share of their profits - which is silly considering the same companies eat the airtime from the locals in favour of American products that don't necessarily have even much impact on the actual sales figures. Many of the American performers that get granted extensive airtime on the video and radio channels don't even necessarily chart here. Frankly because that's not what the audiences in Europe want. And it's hard to see why would they. Due to their apparent lack of musical substance most American acts' album releases don't do at all well either. You can go out in the stores and pick any number of last year's American hit albums for prices as low as you'd pay for a carton of milk.

Yet these American-lead companies constantly try to push such acts through the best they can. What's even more baffling is they don't seem to learn from their mistakes even when they have witnessed a huge number of their offerings vanishing without any sort of impact and this practice has been going on for years now. Bad business perhaps, but the cultural-imperialism evident doesn't need any other proof than the ubiquitous Star Spangled Banner in far too many of those music videos making it to these stores. In contrast, it's quite hard to imagine Swedish acts would come out with their own flag spread all over their own visual accompaniments. That would be just totally absurd.

And don't think people aren't already reacting against American politics and culture - let's just say that being American isn't necessarily the most popular thing in Europe these days. There was an anti-American sentiment before, but it has grown to such proportions that it isn't just "alternatively trendy" anymore. It's turned into a proper political agenda, one that certainly isn't a novelty inside The United States either, as its shared by millions of Americans themselves. But does American nationalism itself really play such a big part in the music business?

I'd hate to bring up the "11th of September" -incident (itself already a trademark of commercial and cultural exploitation), but it seems especially after it the American companies have attempted to shovel American products down our throats like never before. This hasn't worked all that well in other fields of the entertainment industry - most European TV-networks especially have decreased the amount of American TV-series broadcasted in favour of domestic and other European offerings. Hollywood movies haven't been doing all that great either - especially the ones with any sort of patriotic undertone (the general public used to accept such things without criticism before because it was merely "good entertainment", but not so anymore).

The music industry, as always, is lagging behind. Radio and video channels are more filled with American products than ever before. In fact, the playtime given for American single releases inside UK alone has grown 30% during the recent years (And don't be fooled to think this would be because of the superior quality of the products). It has therefore meant a drastic decrease for domestic talent - let alone for acts coming from other European territories. Talk about a newsflash, but it's getting really serious from an insider's standpoint and it's important to stress that while we have a tendency to view the music business as a series of successful artists at their apex, the actual business is mostly formed by much less commercially successful artists and other working personnel. So as you eat away the markets from the local acts you practically eradicate music as a means supporting for a large group of diverse people.

It's ridiculous that while other walks of life in the USA have regocnized internationality a pivotal element in making any business effort bankable - the music industry hasn't. Cinema, art, business life and even sports - the traditional area where patriotism has prevailed more than anywhere else - have made foreign talent as a necessity to exist and flourish. Considering how low in artistic values the American music field has sunk you'd think there'd be a serious niché for imported music. Radiohead and Coldplay are doing their share, but a couple of sporadic names just isn't enough to qualify as a sign of genuine respect for foreign music in today's America. It gets even more ridiculous when you think of rock music's status as something so iconically rebellious that it might be still so pettily concerned and restrictive about roots. African-american artists have suffered because of that for decades before quite recently some of them were able to turn that into an advantage in the form of hip-hop. A genre of music that ties its listeners very much into an utopia of untampered origins. It's almost as if it would be better of for non-American talents to move to the States, master the American accent and keep their mouths shut about their origins and they'd have an actual chance to become genuinely popular. Sounds exaggerated? I actually know people who have done just that.

Things weren't like this before, even groups like The Prodigy were able to get their records on the #1 spot in the US without much effort - and this wasn't more than half a decade ago. And looking back at those days, Shola Ama's "You Might Need Somebody" was one of the first smashs that started the commercial exploitation of R&B in America - while Massive Attack contributed to rap's commercial uprising. In 2003, the situation's quite different. Most Americans don't even have any idea that a person called Robbie Williams might be the most successful male artist in the world today. In fact, the failure of ever getting Robbie's career started in the USA (but certainly not anywhere else) has raised concerns whether there really is an organized effort - even a conspiracy to a degree - to keep any foreigners out of the markets. Of course, you could say the general public won't buy what it doesn't want to spend its money on (altough one could easily argue against that. In fact there's a great tradition in art and media study to define popular culture as something the masses consume because they are unaware of anything better). I'm certainly not a fan of Robbie Williams personally, but it's hard to see why he wouldn't make even a modest impact on the American markets. But if you throw in the nationalist accusations it would be quite clear why that hasn't happened. Especially with all the corporate money he is backed by.

The overt nature of American nationalism certainly isn't something that needs further empirical studies to prove it. It sickens the general public, infuriates the intellectuals and affects negatively to the youth with its exploitative emotional and materialistic ideals.Then why do we, particularily Europeans, crave for America's attention so much? Our behaviour towards America's political and cultural supremacy at the moment reminds that of a jealous lover's desperate cries for attention. As if you loved them each time they are kind enough to give you their precious time and libelling them behind their backs every time they refuse to give you enough attention. Sure, the American music scene might have been labelled almost redundant by this time over here, but each time a domestic act manages to make even the modest impact on the Billboard charts the national headlines are already out on full force. That's not to say it would happen terribly often.

I won't go further into social psychological explanations of codependency between cultural identities and the supressive power of cultures that like to be seen superior to others, but it's just simply a preposterous idea to claim that a non-American wouldn't be able to make commercially viable music. Too many times a successful European band has approached the American leg of its record company and the answer has always been "This wouldn't do well in here.". Why? If the music is pretty much similiar to the music made inside America, as often is the case, the real reason cannot be anything else than the fact that the performers are not Americans themselves. This can be blamed as equally on the narrow-minded executives as well as on the American public on the whole. Don't think we haven't tried - David Bowie, during his heyday in the 70's, had groupies offering to sleep with radio jockeys to get his records played in the US.

Certainly America doesn't need to import European pop fluff to cram it's markets with as it has more than its own share of pop fluff already. As such genre of music is targeted at a teen audience it's enough fickle on its initial grounds to even fathom a concept that a foreign aesthetic might be worth the investigation. I'm neither expecting Sigur Rós to hit the US Top Ten anytime recently, but I think there is generally a cultural and artistic conflict between tastes and merit when American alternative audiences don't get enough access to foreign products. Bizarrely, one of the very few platforms that play European rock music is MTV2 - as the main channel, MTV, could be easily be blamed as the main culprit behind the cultural degration of music pretty much everywhere in the world. There aren't too many radio stations in the United States who would even play foreign rock music. By the way, did you know that The White Stripes and Strokes were first embraced in UK and Europe and since then they have had TOP10 albums all across the world?

Of course with this type of criticism you could easily get the impression that I have just been placing the American black hip-hoppers against the more artistically refined european rock groups as adversaries. But it's also evident that black music in general has recently gone through a huge critical backlash in European media - and that's mostly due to the extensive and unrequited exposure of R&B and hip-hop. Of course, it's a quite big over-generalization on the behalf of the press, as Ja Rule doesn't necessarily have much to do with Don Byron, but it definitely exists.

Some of the greatest American artists in popular music history like Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis and Prince have enjoyed great success in Europe when their domestic audiences couldn't have cared less. In fact, there's a whole tradition of cross-Atlantic exchanging of musical ideas between black Americans and Europeans. It's easy to forget that ever happened because of rock's revisionalist history and the current reborn desire to classify different genres of music according to skin color, but it were the jazz and soul peformers that were seeking inspiration from European muic - certainly not the inwards looking white public with its whatever country & western and easy listening musical styles it was favouring.

A few weeks ago, RZA released a record that introduces European hip-hop to the American public; altough it's not suprising that the record is shifting better in continental Europe than in RZA's homeland. The commercialization of R&B and hip-hop might have spawned unnecessary hatred towards the african-American music scene as whole, but it has admittably brought new audiences with this broadened access with its occasional reference to black music's history. So at least today it's possible for me to have long conversations with teenagers about people like Curtis Mayfield - which excites me tremendously for such things never happened when I was still a teenager myself. Youngsters starting funk bands is not that rare even in smaller towns in Scandinavia these days.

This could work the other way around, if American people in general would be less apprehensive towards foreign products it would be unavoidable that the current music scene dould be lifted up from its admittably dire situation. And you do know for example how in the past many American people were brainwashed to believe anything Japanese is sub-standard, while American products have been "made to last". Something many people have found quite untrue in their homegrown empirical studies.

Next, being a sometime British resident, I would like to take a quick look on how the British market has on its behalf affected the situation. Britain traditionally, has functioned as the courier for political and marketable affairs between USA and the mainlaind Europe. Most of the so-called European acts on the American charts have been British as well and there has existed a great tradition of appreciating British music in America since The Beatles (well they just had to be mentioned). United Kingdom with it's second largest music industry in the world really has always offered a viable competiton to the US, but the UK video channels have been looking suspiciously American dominated more recently, and you don't really hear that much domestic music blasting in the stores of London. And all I was ever asking for was some Atomic Kitten...

Ever since prime minister Blair declared his ambitions for "Cool Britannia" there has actually existed young educated people in The United Kingdom who like to refer to England as "a sort of alternative America" - as if it would be some kind of a travel ad. In reality Britain has always functioned as the sort of approval mechanism which filters out all the redundant things Americans have tried to offer us. Not necessarily so anymore, as the British media has shown decreased levels of independence year by year. Perhaps it's because the country's so strongly tied with American corporate power by now.

Germany is another important factor in understanding how the European music markets work. It's markets have been usually been reduced to the role of passive consuming with its populace of 90 million and an additional 50 million with neighbouring countries receiving German TV broadcasts and being tied to the German media concerns. Germany has also traditionally functioned as the gateway to the vast southern and eastern European markets, but the area is showing more and more of its capability to promote music to the western direction as well. Some of the most important artists in modern music's history (Kraftwerk) have admittably come from Germany, and there's also the tradition of "German expressionism" to be noted, but many German exports have been of the rather low-brow kind. More recently, the industrial metal band Rammstein has had some overseas success. Even if based on mostly curiosity value.

You probably didn't know that many American rappers have contributed guest appearances to records by many German pop performers? The list includes such A-list cohorts as KRS-ONE, Lil' Kim, Ice Cube and even Flavor Flav. The markets really are that big in Germany that it's actually commercially worthwhile. Of course such contributions don't get much attention in the States, not even amidst the fans of the above-mentioned artists' followers.

Germany is actually big part of the problem with the European music markets being overexposed to American products to such an extortionated degree. Anything there seems to go down well with the least amount of criticism, which is rather contradictory with the ambitions of current German politics.

I'm fortunate enough to be born Scandinavian as our domestic music markets are in a rather healthy, autarktic state at the moment with Sweden being the 3rd biggest music exporter in the world and most Swedish music being on the general of very high quality. There is a genuine desire for artisticically viable music and such acts sell by the heaploads, with even the most bubble gum pop being of rather well excecuted - so no complaints in that respect then. Yet no Scandinavian music has really managed to break into the American mainstream markets for years. Sure, Covenant might sell 20,000 records, Flaming Sideburns get played during the Superbowl and Jack Osbourne blast Meshuggah to the irritant neighbours, but things have been quite dry for a while. Things might change if europe's most popular metal band HIM will be featured in this year's Ozzfest, as is already rumoured. It would be quite a sight for the American youth to sing along to "Join Me In Death" in their jeeps, or whatever they prefer these days to transport their wallets to the next mall.

In all honesty, America has accepted a few non-domestic acts inside its hemisphere. Shakira and Ricky Martin are examples of how former latin stars got shown the green light and mutated into all-American shiny magnets you can stick to your refrigerator door. In the process - of course - they were shredded away their true original national identity and any curiousity they might have had to their former images. Shakira herself went through an extensive course of private tuition in English and Martin's hair was cut short in a true sales catalog fashion. Long hair on a man was still a hard thing for the Americans to muster. I guess this would be the route up for the European acts to get some taste of American mainstream success - so is this what we'd really want? Blixa Bargeld... in basketball wear?

___
(Uhmmm... I think it got stretched a bit...)

i see your point,& it is valid,& i agree.

but here in australia,we get the shit brit acts,aswell as the american crap,& also australian garbage played 24/7 on radio & tv,...
instead of really great music,regardless or origin.

i think that is more the point.
they (wrekka companies) know what will sell...
There r aussie acts who don't get as much exposure as,say,your Ashanti & Ja Rule,or your Eminem & Britney.

if i make a tape of a song i have done,i should b able 2 have that played on radio.
but will i get that played on commercial radio?
no,which is why these days,i stick with community radio.
because whether they r playing trax i like or not,they have the listener's best interests at ,not the suits at Warner or Universal or Sony.

but yes,American culture/product/entertainment is in our faces all the time.
But then again,why would u even worry about Robbie Williams or anyone else breaking the US market?
as far as i am concerned,it means jack!

unfortunately for those wanting success in the US (for whatever reason) & those in other countries who are flooded with american product (or any other nation's for that matter)... it is just the way it is...

go write a book

Yeay! An anti-American rant!

-I agree with you that it sucks that American culture has spread like a damn fungus all over the world. I was sorely dissapointed to go to central Europe and find myself still immersed in American "culture".

however

-Nobody is forcing Europeans, and other world citizens, to open their wallets and buy records/movies/whatever from American artists/companies. Consumers are responsible for their own consumer culture. Similarly, Americans are to blame for our own lack of "outside" influence.

But yeah. America. . .man. . .I really am about one hearing of our "elected" leader God-Blessing us all on TV as he drops a bomb somewhere before I move to Canada, the Netherlands, Iceland, or some other civilized nation.

I say turn off the radio and tv and go to the record store and get the music you want to listen to.

Wow that is long..

A few things,

A. Ricky Martin cut his hair to appeal to American audiences not because we have a problem with long hair on a man, it's because we realize it's not 1985 anymore. There have been plenty of long-haired succesful musicians over here, it's just not in style right now.

B. Every few years America gets infatuated with foreign entertainers, various British invasions, Latino movements, Aussie and Canadian acts...it's cyclical, it's happened before, it'll happen again. But you are correct American taste is generally dominated by American artists, as it should be.

C. You're example about Japanese products is odd since Americans today have pretty much been brainwashed that Japanese made= quality; American-made=crap.

D. Oh and on Robbie Willams, a couple of years ago MTV/Viacom over here tried hella hard to push him as the next great thing. You couldn't go 2 days without seeing his mug. It just didn't take. It happens.

E. "A-list cohorts as KRS-ONE, Lil' Kim, Ice Cube and even Flavor Flav." A-list? Maybe 12 or 13 years ago. Maybe Lil' Kim MIGHT still be considered A-list, but over here she's more known for her state of undress than her current music.

.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 9 10:51:55 PDT 2003 by Universaluv]

jesus... i told you the first time around.


your music sucks
there is no market for it in america
there IS a market around the world for american music.



nothing's changed, no matter how many words you use to say the same thing.

AaronSuperior said:

"Your music sucks"? As the article expesses views about many artists from many countries, you just proved the typical inward problem with Joe Public America.

If it ain't American, it sucks? Thats the attitude too many take about everyday things such as the Middle East, and look where that gets you.

As for "There is a market around the world for american music", its easy to find a market for anything, when you control the marketing channels. Its nothing to do with quality. Just look at the billboard top 20 and its easy to see it's not a quality thing.

Here's another point. Crap as it may be, once the UK show "Pop Idol" got the word "American" shoved in front, the US lapped it up. Now they feel it theirs! So its accepted, and promoted.

Yet, they stick a non american on the panel as a "baddie". He's a dickhead, but are they saying they couldn't find an American dickhead on TV? I've seen plenty on prime time. He helped the US public re-affirm their belief that things outside of the states are bad.

Why did Simon Cowell work? Because the American public lap up a baddie from abroard, particularly England. The only two Brits to make an impact on TV in the last couple of years are Anne Diamond and Simon Cowell. Why, because they fit the mold of "Evil dictator" that Hollywood push, and the American public get suckered into.

Just look at all the evil generals and leaders in half the hollywood movies. The British Actors.

Another example. BP. The fastest growing chain in the USA. Most of middle America don't realise that it stands for British Petrolium. Even the US TV adverts avoid mentioning the name, and substitute the BP to mean something else.

Do the marketeers do this for fun? Of Course not. They are thinking about sales, so they appeal to the inward American public. A Non US company has to pretend to be local to make it in the USA. Is this what some of the pop stars now have to do?

Now all of this is happening when Brit popularity with the USA is at an all time high, due to support in the war. So god help other nationalities who try to export to the USA, even 1% of the goods or services that the USA pump down the rest of the worlds throat.

Its not about quality or equal opportunity, its about abusing a position of power.

I think most other nationalities don't give a rats arse if their "Local acts" make it in the US. The problem is, they don't like their own markets being overrun by bland commercial US acts, forced through by the Companies who have the biggest influence on the airwaves.

Unfortunately, the US corporate need for "growth or die" is now a rolling stone that is very hard to stop. It is ruining tradtional areas like the arts, film and music. The US music scene is quickly emulating the fast food market.

Its not the US public's fault any more than the rest of the world, its just that too many people don't realise they are being had by a marketing campaign. Home and Abroad.

The backlash is that the Corporate greed for growth is leaving many non-US citizens with a bitter aftertaste, and they are blaming "America" rather than the Companies or Government.

This is about the music, but the problem goes beyond this.

American pop music sucks but...

Pop music in general sucks nowadays, that is the main problem. The level of mediocrity is overwhelming.

British pop scene used to be so exciting and look at it now. There are a few good bands for sure but the whole thing is just depressing

Quit yer bitchin you limey wanker.

European modern music does suck. With the exception of Muse and International Noise Conspiracy.

The Europeans need to realize that Robbie Williams, George Michael, All of the Spice Girls, Oasis, Coldplay and Radiohead are garbage.

Okay... enough feeding the fire.

The truth is, look at MAJOR popular groups and artists. U2, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Marley, Radiohead (even though i hate them) and, to a lesser extent, Falco (joke... ha!). Many of the biggest selling names in the history of music are not American.

It is all a preference. no need to look deeper into it.

chemmie said:

You should study European music a little bit more careful, beyond the extend of mainstream pop.

Europe has the largest and most innovating jazz scene.
Europe has the most innovative musical underground development, such as trip-hop, 2-step, etc.
Europe gave Soul and Funk another try and pushed black music to a new level while R&B in the US, the country of its origin, is going downhill.

I am American but when it comes to new music I tend to get into more British bands/artists than any other area of the world. I have always looked across the pond for exciting new music. Right now I can't get enough of Gomez, The Music, Travis, and Paul Weller's new one.

I haven't liked American pop music since the mid-80s when pop music didn't just mean bubblegum. Think about it, back in 1987 you could hear Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, U2, Bon Jovi, & Def Leppard all on the same "pop " station.

One thing we Europeans should be proud of is that we make the best dance-music in the world. All the best dance-cuts are produced by DJ's from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Ibiza. Although loud mouth Yankee's say they hate that type of music, whenever I am on summer-vacation at some mediterranian beach, I see those freaky Americans going crazy on our music, not knowing how to act or move. But they are loving it, buying cd's, they'll never admit to. They rather stick to their white trash bands like Puddle Of Mud or Staind, or the oh so mighty Durst or Manson!

Yeah, I don't give a fuck that the US is not open minded towards european acts, it helps keeping the best to our self and leaving them withe crap.But I am not saying that it's all crap, there are many american bands/performers that I very much like!.

chemmie said:

My slightly inward yank bitch dog!

Muse are my favourite band. What good taste you have, (considering what you have to put up with on the radio!).

SquirrelMeat said:

Spice Girls, Ricky Martin, Shakira, Robbie Williams... need I go on?

AaronSuperior said:

You are right. I should be enjoying the best the US is offering; Clay & Ruben, P Diddy, Shania Twain, Kid Rock. Yum Yum.

By the way, thanks for the classic stuff too; Brandy, Backstreet Boys, Kenny G, Will Smith, Chicago, Motley Crew.

Where do I apply for a visa!

Let me say first I'm from New Zealand.
I think one reason people from english speaking countries can't get into music from germany, sweden etc is they all have different languages.
Some of the groups sing in english but how am I supposed to understand a hundred thousand different languages. Someone last week showed me some german hiphop, it sounded cool but I wouldn't buy it cause I didn't understand it.
Many people from those european countries appear to have a limited understanding of english though so they receive music in english better than we recieve theirs.

Also it seems that for pop that many of the european acts production is a not so good knock off of the americans style. And commenting on dance music, the people I know who listen to it outside of a club are consistently on drugs and people who are not on drugs generally don't listen to it at home. My reasoning for not listening to it is that it lacks depth, lacks humanity, lacks real vocalists usually, and usually lacks real instrumentation, and for the remixes, they're never as good as the original songs.

Also here in New Zealand if I take a look at the pop that's made it here from europe and america I'd have to say, the stuff we get from america is better. The new justin timberlake singles (produced by neptunes) recently have been some of the funkiest pop imported from overseas in a while (as hard as that is top say!), same with R Kelly Ignition; Beyonce Crazy in Love these are great pop songs.

When I think of the european stuff that has come here the last few years it makes me cringe on the whole: Aqua (scandinavia?), Blue (england), Kylie (england), Atomic Kitten (these girls are terrible), Misteeq (although their songs have gotten better to their credit). Thats the stuff we get, and I'm not really into the coldplay/radiohead stuff so I can't comment on that.

So if there's lots of european music that's worthy then why do we get such shite? I don't know who that question should be directed to exactly maybe the multinational record labels?


PEACE!

Thank you all for responding. The point really isn't about the quality of the music being exported or imported it's just about craving for equal opportunity for everyone. I'd especially like you to pay attention to the paragraph that deals with the music industry not moving on with the times and becoming more open minded (considering it was seen as a "revolutionary force" back in the day).
There used to be R&B charts back in the day in the US, these days there is a need for international charts. Let's not forget that the disrespect for foreigners is the most hideous form of racism prevailing in modern societies these days. Of course, this is just pop music, but it's an indication whatsoever.

Btw, This is an abbreviation and an adapatation for the .org of a much longer article I've written for a whole another website.

Especially a big thank you to to Squirrelboy, for eh... sharing my views and not being wrong.

chemmie said:

They didn't become successful during the last few years.

nd33 said:

Last time I checked Kylie was still from Australia...

AaronSuperior said:

Each time there's a "new sound" or a new way of producing in the USA, it either comes from Jamaica or England.
Interesting american artists are those who keep an eye on the rest of the world, and interestingly they sell more in Europe than their native country (the name of Steve Coleman came to my mind).
Without the power of marketing, people wouldn't buy so much american stuff, but there is also many people who are also very tired of your dumb formated pop music & bad movies (that are most of the time, bad remakes of european movies).
I don't buy this,you can keep it for yourself, i can find much better and inspired music (because not so dictated by the laws of formats) in Jamaica, Africa, South America, Europe & Asia...
But i guess what is good for you, is what you see on tv, cuz you certainly need someone to tell you what you must like...

So many generalizations. You don't like our music, movies, culture,etc. Then quit buying it. It really is that simple. If your countrymen don't follow you, oh well. Despite their influence over airplay these huge multinational corporations can't force consumers to support their artists. If that were the case Robbie Williams would be the biggest thing over here right now. If you think there's too much crap music on the radio then unfortunately that probably means that alot of people happen to like crap music. Always been that way, always will be.

Generalizations by people from all over the world. I love it.

Don't you see? That's how it's sold, to the masses.

I don't like any band mentioned on this thread, I'm from the US. I don't listen to the radio or MTV, it's all horseshit.

It's like the world forgot about how much amazing music from all over the world has already been written. I'm sure you haven't heard it all. dig into the archives of the past.

Did you see Prince in concert or hear One Night Alone disc? Tune into WNPG.

These 2 quotes sum it up for me.

"When I want to hear something new I play it." - Prince

"The Media doesn't Fool me" - I'm not sure where I picked that up from.

ChimChimBadass said:

England? stop right there. the new sounds you're talking about coming from England are ALWAYS derived from American rock, pop, soul, what have you...

well, shame that so many great American artists have been more honoured and more respected in Europe and Japan than they have been and are in the US then...
anyone read "Fast Food Nation" apply it to Music and you get the drift...
what do you like AaronSuperior then since there's so much you don't like??? but you're right there's a great market abroad for some US music... just when do you honour those people at home...???

FelixtheCat said:

honor them? i don't need to "honor" them. they do what they love to do, they put it out, if i like it, i buy it. they enjoy their work, they supply a product, i buy it, and then i enjoy it. that is how i "honor" them, just as it is meant to be. they are artists, just people, not gods. i have no desire to honor them, worship them, sing their praises to others, if i do not so choose.

Universaluv said:

Nowhere did I say that. However, it DID say at the top of the post that if you don't bother to read the whole message and understand its content don't bother replying. It's just how the netiquette goes.

Novabreaker said:

"The overt nature of American nationalism certainly isn't something that needs further empirical studies to prove it. It sickens the general public, infuriates the intellectuals and affects negatively to the youth with its exploitative emotional and materialistic ideals."

yes, you DID.


all of this ranting is pathetic. you are not a child. there are several alternatives to "popular music and culture".
you are too lazy to find them. perhaps if you didn't spend so much time here whining then you'd have better luck in finding them.

freakin, double post, see below
[This message was edited Mon Jul 14 10:35:15 PDT 2003 by Universaluv]

Novabreaker said:

Believe me, I read and understood your very long rant. (Although I'm pretty certain I didn't write an " inflammable responds", whatever that is.)Frankly, I'd said what I had to say on that subject.

The reference to "So many generalizations" was a reference to generalizations throughout the entire thread, especially several posts directly above mine, not yours in particular. I guess you didn't take time to read and understand that. It happens.


.
[This message was edited Mon Jul 14 10:42:11 PDT 2003 by Universaluv]